A Whole New Yang
by The TO
Summary: Yang wakes up from a stay in the hospital, only it isn't Yang. Somehow a stranger from Earth has found herself as a 15 year old Yang on Remnant. How will she use her foreknowledge to shape the future of the world she now finds herself on?
1. Chapter 1

The first thing that I discovered upon waking up was a throbbing pain in my head. I reached up to massage the area only to discover that it was covered with bandages. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a flash of red and black. Once my vision finally refocused, I saw a familiar looking girl sitting at the foot of my bed. I attempted to lean forward, but I had very little strength, and my attempt ended with me plopping softly back onto the pillow. Now that I was more aware, I felt the pain that went through my entire body. It wasn't intense, restrained to a dull, throbbing that would undoubtedly fade with more rest.

"Yang, not so fast." A light, high pitched voice cautioned from nearby. Yang. That name sounded familiar. Why?

"Where am I?" I managed to grumble out with some effort. The pain in my body appeared to be subsiding somewhat, so that was one point in my favour.

"You're at Vale Regional Hospital." The same voice replied tentatively. Vale? That sounded familiar too. Where the Hell am I? I tried to remember the last thing I was doing before I woke up here, but all that did was prompt a resurgence of agony in my head.

"My head is killing me." I hissed, clutching at the offending appendage. I heard a pair of soft plops, before there were rapid footsteps away. What little sight I had told me that the black and red girl had left. I heard faint talking in the other room. Given the state of my mind, it all sounded like white noise to me. A moment later and the footsteps returned, this time with someone else. The someone else had a much heavier gait, practically clomping into the room from wherever they had been. Almost immediately after, a gentle pressure from all sides encompassed my torso. I blearily opened my eyes to see an older blonde man hugging me, his face pressing into the pillow next to my head.

"Oh, I'm so glad you're finally awake, my Little Sun Dragon." His voice was muffled, but at the same time I felt a sense of comfort and warmth emanating from him. My gut told me that I could trust this man. I weakly attempted to return the hug, if only so he would let go and I could go back to sleep. I closed my eyes once more, the effort of keeping them open becoming too much. The man retreated and I felt the warmth leave me. The cold of the hospital was a stark contrast.

"How long have I been in here?" I asked weakly.

"Nearly three months. You took a nasty hit from an Ursa. It came very close to killing you." That word also sounded familiar. The context that he put it in made it sound like an Ursa was a creature of some kind. Suddenly I remembered where I had heard these words before. A deep chill ran through my blood.

"Ruby…" I muttered under my breath. RWBY. For a moment I thought that this was some weird lucid dream, but everything hurt too much for that to be true. As if the floodgates had opened, the knowledge all came back at once. The breach. The fall. Cinder. Salem. Ozpin's death. Even stuff from my old life, thankfully. My parents attending my graduation from Stanford. My law degree. Winning my first case against some guy that had killed a dozen women in cold blood. I remember starting to watch RWBY in my spare time after that case. I hadn't put much stock into the show at first, but by the time Volume 3 was to be released, I was always hungry for more. My friends always said that it was a kid show. Now that I was a bit more awake, I made a concerted effort to sit up. The man, Taiyang as I now knew he was called, helped by adjusting the four pillows behind me to form a sort of resting area for my head.

It was here that I finally managed to get a good look at the room I was in. The walls were a soft blue color, almost sky blue. There was a window that told me that we were up on a higher floor. A mirror that rested at the end of my bed, attached via an adjustable arm, was pointed directly at me. I saw a familiar, yet at the same time, unfamiliar face. Lilac eyes matched my every move, small wisps of bright blonde hair crept out from beneath the bandages. A slightly gaunt face, likely from an extended stay in the hospital, was the most prominent feature in my eyes. I was Yang? That didn't make any sense.

"You must be starving, Sunny. Let me see what the hospital has. Are cheeseburgers still your favorite?" Taiyang asked. From my lack of a response, he had evidently noticed me staring at the mirror. "Don't worry, it'll grow back in no time." He had apparently taken my staring at the mirror as fixating on Yang's… my… very short hair. "So, how about that cheeseburger?" He insisted, and by some cruel twist of fate, my stomach chose that moment to assert its presence in the room. I flushed and dipped my head in submission.

"That sounds great. Thank you." I replied as calmly as I could. Thankfully it was passable as nerves from just waking up, instead of the inner turmoil that I felt ravaging my mind. I was Yang. I'm currently wearing Yang's body like a flesh suit. The last thing I remember before waking up here was driving home after a late meeting with a new client. I remember a loud honking, as if from a tractor trailer. Then nothing. Had I died? It seemed the only plausible explanation.

"Yang?" Ruby gently nudged my shoulder, making me jump from my thoughts.

"Sorry, I'm just trying to deal with it all." I half-lied. This seemed to placate the young reaper, because she picked right back up on whatever she was talking about.

"School started a month ago. I'm so nervous about finally going to Signal, but it's worth it. Uncle Qrow started teaching me how to use a scythe just after your accident. He claimed it was to take my mind off of you, but I really think he just wanted to do something in the layover between school years. He said I'm a natural." She flushed and rubbed the tips of her index fingers together.

I smiled at her, hoping the gesture would help. "Don't worry Ruby." She leapt at me, wrapping me in a tight hug. My earlier discomfort had faded, so the reaper didn't hurt me too much. She buried her face in the pillow next to me, much in the same way that Taiyang had. Only instead of words of comfort, heartfelt sobs were Ruby's choice of communication.

"I missed you so much. When I found you in the forest, with that Ursa towering over you." She hiccupped. I wrapped the young girl in a hug, pressing her into me. "I thought I was gonna lose you." My heart did a somersault in my chest, because in a way she had lost Yang.

"I'm not going anywhere, Rubes." I used Yang's pet nickname for Ruby, hoping to bring some modicum of comfort to the young girl. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Taiyang… Dad. I would have to get used to calling him dad. This was going to suck. He walked forward, evidently proud of me for being a good big sister. On the tray he was carrying was the fattest, most topping stuffed cheeseburger I had ever seen. My mouth was practically watering at the sight of it.

"Rubes you want to get off your sister so she can eat?" Taiyang asked softly. The reaper sniffled and hopped off of me, taking a seat in a chair on the opposite wall. She mouthed a silent 'thank you' as Taiyang set up the tray that was mounted into the bed. Now that I got a closer look, I could see the plate of All American goodness in all its glory. A hamburger that had to be at least half of a pound of meat, tomato, lettuce, cheese, ketchup, pickles, onions. Pretty much everything you could reasonably fit on a hamburger. Alongside it was a group of what looked to be fresh fries, an apple, and a glass of what looked like tea. The first thing I went for was the tea. I took a sip through the straw and was greeted by my favourite tea. It was bog standard tea with sugar and a hint of lemon. Evidently that was something that Yang and I had in common. I drank for a solid 30 seconds, downing about half of the glass, before I attempted to wrestle with the monster burger. I managed to get one solid bite off of it. A nice, picturesque chunk was now missing from the burger. I chewed happily on the multitude of flavors. If there was one thing that I was glad was on Remnant, it was a good burger. Just before I could take another bite, Taiyang swooped in and placed a napkin in my lap.

I greedily swallowed the first bite. "Thanks Dad." I forced myself to say. It felt awkward on my tongue. I attempted to mask my discomfort by taking another bite of the burger. Over the course of half an hour, I managed to eat everything on my tray, leaving only the empty glass and the apple core. I flushed when I noticed Ruby and Taiyang's awestruck look. "I guess I was hungrier than I thought." I excused lamely. My inner warmth had slowly returned, pushing away the frigid air of the room. I gave my hand a test flex and was surprised when a bright yellow glow reacted. Was this what aura was? Taiyang expressed shock at how sudden of a recovery I seemed to be making.

"Well, that's a really good sign." Yang's dad chuckled softly. "I'll go get the doctor." He stood up and quickly left the room. Ruby had been staring at me wide eyed for a few minutes. I felt like I should ask her what was wrong, but I still felt lethargic from being comatose for so long. I leaned my head back against the pillows and closed my eyes to search through my memories once more. Yang had graduated from Signal when the first season of the show took place, and given that Ruby was only just starting, that meant that Yang was in her third year this year. Which meant I had two years to attempt to prevent the Fall from taking place. I knew their names. Tyrian, the scorpion Faunus, who was a psychopath and completely dedicated to Salem. Arthur Watts, who was a seemingly intelligent man and loathed Cinder. Hazel, whom hated Ozpin for the death of his sister. And Cinder, the one who would steal the Fall Maiden's powers.

Ruby said that the year had just started a month ago, which meant that I was already a month behind my current year. I wanted to learn all I could about this world before I was forced to go back to Signal. Hopefully I could convince dad to let me have an additional month off, citing the need to recover my strength and get back into shape. Provided that the doctor let me out today of course. Apparently being able to use my aura so quickly after waking up was a good sign. I needed to practice using it.

The door clicking open drew me out of my thoughts. Tai walked back in, this time accompanied by a man in a doctor's coat. He was balding, had rounded, thick rimmed glasses on, and was clean shaven. His nametag read 'Russet Braun M.D.'

"Miss Xiao Long, good to see you're finally awake." The doctor greeted cordially. "If you could answer a couple of questions I can determine if you are ready to leave today." I nodded, eager to get out of the hospital and get moving around. His questions were centered on my health, am I feeling pain or dizziness, etc. After a few minutes, he cleared me to leave, thankfully. They had Taiyang fill out some paperwork and before I knew it I was walking to the ferry that would take the three of us home. Home. It was an unfamiliar word to me. When I moved out to go to college, I had lived in a dorm by myself. After that, I rented an apartment and lived alone. The concept of living with someone, no matter who they were, was alien to me. I was a bit nervous.

While Taiyang was filling out the paperwork, Ruby gave me a change of clothes. It was a simple yellow shirt, a set of long tan colored slacks, and a navy-blue jacket. There was even a hat to cover my growing hair. It was now less than an inch long, and made me look like a tomboy. I personally had always liked to keep my hair cropped short, but for the sake of not blowing my cover, I wore the hat anyway. The bandages were removed by the doctor and the area where the scar would be was still lacking hair. It looked somewhat off-putting, and I knew that once my hair grew out it would be very well concealed. The trouble was that I wasn't sure that I wanted my hair to grow out.

"You've been quiet." Taiyang commented from my side as we overlooked the waterway between Patch and Vale. I unconsciously gripped the guard rail tighter, something Tai thankfully didn't notice.

"Just thinking about all the schoolwork I have to make up." I answered quickly. Figuring that I wouldn't find a better time to bring it up, I asked "Hey dad, do you think I could stay home for a month to get back into shape? I could ask the teachers to send me the work that I would be missing so I could do it at home. Would that be okay?" I looked up to him with what I hoped was a pleading expression. He stared at me for a moment.

Just when I thought he was going to say no, "Alright. I'll have the staff put together a curriculum for you to study while you're recovering. The doctor told me to make you take it easy for a week or two anyway." Taiyang's reply brought a smile to my face. "Oh I almost forgot." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a cell phone. "I brought your Scroll." I gently took the device from him and slid it open like I remembered seeing them do on the show.

The familiar image of Yang's face greeted me, along with a short list of what I presumed were applications. It seemed that she fancied mobile games. There was an app called 'Circular' that I couldn't place immediately. I presumed it was some form of social media platform. "Thank you," I replied before the awkward pause between him handing it to me and me acknowledging it got too large. I clicked on Circular and a list of various chat rooms opened. So it seemed it was something like Discord that I often used to coordinate with clientele. I noticed that there were around a thousand or so unread messages across half a dozen room and several private chat rooms. I quickly closed the app, not ready to deal with Yang's imposing circle of friends. I moved to another app called Sword. I opened it and was greeted with a very short message from one person. It said simply 'I know.' If that wasn't ominous as all Hell. It seemed like another chat app, which Yang having two separate chat apps wouldn't make sense. This must be somehow related to how I ended up here on Remnant.

Deciding to feel cheeky, I sent a reply back that said, 'know what?'. Not even half of a second later, I received a reply, thankfully silently, that read 'You know what, Jessica.' Okay, one hundred percent in creepy territory now. Just as I was about to reply, the mysterious stranger sent another message that read 'We'll talk later.' The ferry thumped loudly, signaling that we had docked at Patch. Ruby had latched onto me again for a surprise hug, something she had done at least a dozen times since we had left the hospital. I could understand why, considering that she had nearly lost her sister. Even though technically she had. I had long since resigned to my fate of acting as her big sister. Not that that was a particularly terrible burden, considering how adorable Ruby was. I tousled her hair as we walked over the ramp that led to the island. Taiyang had already gotten into a spiffy looking four-door car and had pulled up next to the disembarking area. I hopped in the passenger seat, Ruby taking the middle seat between the me and Tai. I had already exited out of Sword and reopened Circular. I went through Yang's friend list, committing as many names and faces as I could to memory. Something that afforded me much ease during my ability to retain large amounts of information in a short period of time. My classmates had often accused me of cheating. I always laughed it off. The ride from the ferry to the Xiao Long household was short, only around ten minutes. He pulled the car into a doorless garage. Everyone got out and almost immediately I was waylaid by a small furry animal. Said animal turned out to be Zwei. He was panting happily and licking my face.

"Ok ok Zwei, I'm happy to see you too." I hugged the Corgi and set him down on the ground gently. He barked happily and took off back towards the house where he had come from. As we were walking up, a door slammed and out came Qrow Branwen, Yang's uncle.

"Good to see you walking around, Firecracker." Qrow grumbled and wrapped me in a hug. He reeked of alcohol. While I hadn't been much of a drinker in my previous life, the thought of a warm belly full of booze sounded excellent right now. I returned the hug earnestly, Qrow being one of my favorite characters in RWBY.

"Thanks, Uncle Qrow." I replied, my inner fangirl squee'ing at the thought of calling Qrow 'uncle'. He pulled back, swaying slightly. It was close to dinnertime, and he had likely already consumed quite a bit of alcohol.

"C'mon kids, let's get you inside." Tai gestured for us to follow. Ruby, of course, was first due in no small part to her semblance. She opened the door and darted inside. A quick glance at my scroll told me that it was Friday, meaning that I had two days of relaxation and recuperation before I officially started on my school work and getting back into shape. It would be plenty of time to learn the names and faces of all of Yang's friends.

"I'm gonna go up to my room for a bit," I called out as I climbed the stairs, hoping that they had no reason to talk to me so soon. Thankfully, they didn't and I reached my room unimpeded. I knew it was my room because it had Yang's emblem on it: the fiery heart. I opened the door and was greeted with a mess. Yang's room had evidently not been cleaned in the time that she was in a coma, so it was up to me to clean it. Without hesitation, I got started. The dirty laundry got piled in the hamper, the books and papers got sorted on my desk, and the bed got made. When everything was said and done, it looked ten times better than it had. The best part was that it only took like ten minutes to accomplish.

A knocking on my slightly ajar door drew my attention. "Knock knock kiddo, time for dinner." Qrow slowly opened the door. I had placed my jacket and hat on either side of my desk chair, so my short hair and slightly emaciated body was on full display for Qrow.

"I'll be right down," I called out as I moved to the closet to find something more comfortable to wear. Qrow hadn't left, apparently too busy gazing at the now cleaned room.

"You cleaned your room." He said as if it was something that wasn't a common occurrence.

"It's not a big deal. It was a mess so I cleaned it." I said easily, not looking away from the closet, I paused my perusing to look back at him, but he was gone. It seemed that he had returned downstairs. I breathed a sigh of relief and picked out a flowery yellow shirt. It was loose and buttoned up, and even had a breast pocket to keep stuff in. I made sure the door was secured shut before ditching the shirt I had worn home from the hospital and putting the flower shirt on. I buttoned it up and it fit perfectly. Yang's breasts were considerably larger than what I was used to: my size being a mid-b and Yang's easily being a double C. I adjusted the shirt to make sure it was fitted properly and exited my room, depositing my scroll on the desk as I went. The short walk down to the kitchen gave me some time to think. Yang's problem during the episodes leading up to the Fall were that she telegraphed her moves too much. It led to the loss of her arm. That was something I would have to work on while I trained. I was quite attached to my arms thank you very much. I couldn't quite place the smells coming from the kitchen. It smelled good, but I didn't know how much Remnant cuisine stacked up with Earth's cuisine.

Dinner was a quiet affair. We had spaghetti and meatballs with garlic bread and some sort of cheese biscuits on the side. In less than twenty minutes, I was back in my room and getting ready for bed. Despite it only being a quarter past five, I wanted to get into my pajamas and focus on learning everything I could memorize about Yang's friends. I went even further and went to each of her friends and memorized their friends faces and names. It never hurt to be too careful. When I had finished it was close to 9 P.M. I memorized close to a hundred names and faces, which I would refresh my knowledge on tomorrow. For now, though, sleep.

The transition from sleep to awake was instantaneous. I had no idea if I had been laying awake or if I had just woken up. I instinctively reached over to my nightstand and grabbed my phone. Though in this case it was a scroll. I saw a flashing number 3 on the yellow diamond shape that acted as the seal. I slid it open and saw I had three messages. Two from people on Circular, and one from the mysterious stranger. I decided to check the stranger's message first, seeing as I wanted to put off social interaction with Yang's friends for as long as possible. The message was date and time set a year, ten months, and six hours ahead of the current time. That would place it about a month before Yang entered Beacon. Wasn't this when the Fall Maiden was to be attacked? It also listed a set of coordinates that would undoubtedly be the spot where Cinder, Emerald and Mercury would ambush the Maiden. I grabbed an empty notebook from a desk drawer and wrote the information down with the note 'be here or Fall will win' I also spent the next half hour remembering as much as I could about the events that transpired before the Fall of Vale. Once that was done, I shut the notebook and tucked it under my mattress. Upon doing so, I discovered another notebook.

This one was labeled 'Diary'. I couldn't express how much I desperately needed this information. The first date listed in the book was five years ago according to the date that my scroll had. Most of the information was dated. Dating some boys for a while, breaking up with them, training to get into Signal. I soaked it all up like a sponge. Any information I could get on Yang that I didn't already have was invaluable. The most recent entry was at the end of Yang's second year at Signal, just days before her encounter with the Ursa. It talked about someone named Cheri and how they were going to train together over the summer break. Yang's accident had thrown that plan out the window. With a sigh, I returned the diary to the hiding spot and grabbed a set of clothes that I would wear for the day.

Making sure to make my bed before I left, I took the spare set of clothes and grabbed a towel from the open closet next to the bathroom. Once I was inside and the door was locked, I took the opportunity to look at myself in the mirror. My hair was short, in a pixie cut, something that the real Yang would have killed someone over. I personally liked it. It was only around half an inch shorter than the hairstyle I had in my old life. I ran my fingers through the surprisingly soft hair. My skin was practically unblemished, save for the scar that was partly visible at my hairline. I stripped off my clothes and hopped in the shower, noting that I had the beginnings of a six pack abs going. The hot water felt heavenly. I always liked taking hot showers. It gave me time to think, something that I had a feeling that I was going to need desperately in the coming days and weeks. The shower was over before too long and I made my way downstairs after getting dressed. My bare feet padded across the carpet. Ruby was in her pajamas watching Saturday morning cartoons. It seemed like a show based entirely on Chibis. I glanced down at the closed scroll in my hands, those two messages on Circular weighing on my mind. I couldn't put them off for too long, but at the same time I didn't want to answer them. Deciding that I would glance at them, I opened my scroll and slid the notification down. They were messages from Cheri. I had glanced over her profile last night. I couldn't find anything too interesting though. Same age as Yang, going to Signal, lives on Patch around the same distance from the Xiao Long house as Signal was. The diary didn't mention anything specific about her, other than that they hung out sometimes after school and on the weekends. The first message read 'hey heard u got out of the hospital finally, hru?' The second was a smiley face emoji that looked to be sent immediately after the first.

I thought about putting it off, but I knew that I should answer it. I replied with a short 'I'm feeling great. Taking a month off to recuperate and get back into shape then I'll be back at Signal.' It was short, and it covered everything that I needed to convey. Satisfied with that, I closed my scroll and slipped it into my pocket. Ruby had finished her bowl of cereal and was taking it to the kitchen. I decided to follow and make myself something to eat. The cereal that Ruby had eaten, Frosty Flakes, was still on the counter.

"I can take your bowl, sis." I held out my hands expectantly and the little reaper gladly handed it to me. I rinsed out the bowl and spoon and dried it with a towel that was hanging from the oven. I poured a bowl full of the sugary cereal and opened the fridge to get the milk. Less than a minute later, I was enjoying a sweet bowl of cereal. Oh God I was even thinking in puns now. Damn it Yang. I took the bowl upstairs to my room to see what else I could remember about the time leading up to the Fall. Idly munching on the cereal, I spent around ten minutes going over my notes and trying to fill in as many gaps as possible. Once I had finished my cereal, I tucked the notebook under my bed once more and went to put the bowl in the sink. Unfortunately, before I could leave the room, my scroll chimed. I set my bowl down on the nightstand and pulled out the offending piece of technology. It was a reply from Cheri. 'u free to hang out today?' was the content of the message.

I knew immediately what to reply. 'No sorry, the doctor told me to take it easy for a week or two. Next weekend?' With that finished, I returned my scroll to my pocket and resumed my journey to put my bowl in the sink. Ruby had vacated and the television was off, so I presumed that she had gone out. Tai was still missing as well. I placed the bowl in the sink with the other dishes and plopped down on the couch. Zwei waddled in from the kitchen area and hopped onto the couch next to me. The television was some news program on a charity ball in Atlas that I held no interest in. Zwei barked happily when I rubbed his head.

I had no idea how I was going to pull this off. I had to somehow remain undetected, pretending to be Yang, thwart an uprising that if went unchecked, would lead to the destruction of an entire kingdom, and that wasn't even close to the hardest part of what I had to do. That was just the start. After that I had to dismantle the White Fang, find Salem's lackeys, and then find and put an end to Salem's schemes once and for all. It was a colossal task that I couldn't even begin to fathom how I would accomplish. The only way I could see is to compartmentalize it. Worry about the next thing coming up, which was getting in shape and cementing my cover as Yang. God, I felt like some cheap low-quality movie spy when I thought that. I rested my face in my hands, honestly stumped as to how I would possibly accomplish this.

"Yang?" A familiar gravelly voice spoke from nearby. I looked up to see Qrow leaning against the guard rail at the base of the stairs. His expression was downturned, worry plastered all over his face. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, just thinking about how much school work I'm going to have to make up." I lied easily. It's weird. I made a career out of finding out the truth, and now here I was spreading lies. I almost laughed at the irony. Evidently whoever sent me here had a sense of humor. The couch sank slightly, as Qrow took a seat directly next to me. He held out something that made my blood run cold. It was the notebook that I had recorded all of my foreknowledge in. Undoubtedly, he had looked at it and seen several things that I shouldn't have known. My expression hardened into a mask. "How much did you read?"

"You're lucky that Tai is out for the day. I'd have shown him before confronting you about it." He handed me the notebook. "How do you know all this stuff?" He stared at me incredulously.

I leaned back and answered him with a scoff, "You wouldn't believe me even if I told you." Way to go, Jess. Here for not even 24 hours and someone already knows your secret.

"You can tell me anything, Firecracker." He turned to face me, his eyes wrought with compassion. It suddenly felt like someone plunged an icy knife in my heart.

"I'm not your Firecracker, Qrow." I managed to get out after a few seconds of awkward silence. "I'm not Yang." His expression rapidly shifted from fear to anger. I'm thankful that he didn't have his weapon on him else I'd have to talk with the pointy end of a sword at my neck.

"You have about ten seconds to explain yourself," He glared at me, which quite frankly wasn't that intimidating. I knew he couldn't hurt me, Yang or no.

"What do you want me to say, that Yang is dead and I'm wearing her body around like a flesh suit? Yeah that'll sound real nice when you make me tell it to Ruby and Tai." I spat at him venomously. He seemed taken aback by my admission. "Yeah, is that what you wanted to hear? I'm some woman from another world that ended up here as your niece with knowledge of the future on how Salem is going to destroy Vale."

His expression morphed back into sadness. "I read that much. The stuff in that book, there's no way you could learn that stuff on your own. It's too detailed. Even down to how Ozpin reincarnates. No one aside from him, Summer, and me knew that. Even Tai didn't know that." He sighed heavily and leaned back on the couch. "How do I know that you plan to use this information for good?" I grabbed the notebook and opened it to the first page. It was the date and location from when the Fall Maiden would be attacked.

"You see this?" He glanced at the page before nodding. "This is the exact time, date, and place where I know for a fact that the Fall Maiden will be attacked and half her powers stolen." His eyes widened, undoubtedly because he oversaw taking care of Fall. "She is going to be ambushed by Mercury Black, Emerald Sustrai, and Cinder Fall, the latter of which attempts to steal the Maiden's power through use of a Grimm implanted in her body by Salem." I tossed the notebook onto the table and fixed him with a glare. "This was going to be the first event I changed in the timeline, most notably because it was an incredibly pivotal event. I had planned on using Amber as bait to capture Cinder and her two little miscreants. Without her, Salem's whole plan to take out Vale becomes kaput. If nothing else it would have bought us a few years, plenty of time for us to train and for Ruby to unlock the power of her eyes."

"I don't even know what to say." Qrow rubbed his eyes wearily. "I'm too sober for this." I thought a moment before replying. If he talked to Ozpin, then Ozpin would undoubtedly want to talk to me, which would arouse more suspicion. He couldn't tell Tai, as Tai would lose his mind. It seemed that silence would be the best option.

"Then say nothing." I told him. "We continue on as normal, I keep pretending to be Yang, altering certain small events along the way. When the time comes for Cinder to ambush the Maiden, we go to Ozpin and he helps us capture the three dipshits." I made my disdain for Salem's cult known. He took a large pull from his pocket flask, though before he could tuck it into the interior of his jacket, I snatched it from him. Not giving him even a moment to react, I took a swig. The booze burned, but I had plenty of experience with that type of liquor.

"What are you doing?" He hastily grabbed the flask back, capping it and tucking it away.

I licked my lips. "Not bad. I always took my rum with coffee though." I gave him a cheeky grin, enjoying the flabbergasted look on his face. I grabbed at my notebook and flipped to one of the pages that took place just before the Fall. It was the Yang vs. Mercury match. "Here, read this page." He took the notebook and upon checking over the contents, glanced worriedly at me.

"So, this Emerald person is capable of inducing hallucinations," He closed the book and handed it back to me.

"As far as I know of she needs to focus on the target, which means she needs line of sight on them. This is the main reason that the Fall happened in the first place. Her hallucinations resulted in Mercury being 'injured'" I made sure to use air quotes. "And it made Pyrrha overuse her semblance and chop Penny up like a block of cheese. Not to mention that she used it to trick the Fall Maiden into thinking that there was a defenseless little girl on the side of the road, which made her get off her horse and made the ambush possible in the first place." My scroll chimed, and when I looked at the message, it was Tai saying that he was on his way home. I placed my scroll back into my pocket. "Tai…" I frowned. "Dad is on his way home now. Do you plan to tell him, or anyone, about this?" He appeared to genuinely consider telling for a moment, before a grimace appeared on his face.

"No, I won't" He stood up and moved towards the kitchen. "Though, you need to work hard if we have any chance of getting through this." He took a bottle from one of the top shelves and poured the contents into the flask.

"Yes, Uncle Qrow." I said cheekily. He grumbled exasperatedly. I got up and went upstairs to tuck the notebook somewhere safe. Obviously if Qrow had found it so quickly, then others would too. The underwear drawer would be too blatant as well. Out of curiosity, I pulled the second drawer out of the dresser entirely, revealing a flat area that blocked access to the drawer below it. This would be perfect. I placed the notebook down and put the drawer full of clothes back in its place. My scroll told me that it was nearly noon. I needed to continue researching this world if I wanted to blend in. There was plenty of charge left on my scroll, so I headed down to the living room and put on the news, opening my scroll to the closest approximation to Google I could find. I have no idea how long I was sitting there reading, but before long Tai was gently nudging me, claiming that it was time for dinner. I hadn't had lunch, and I was quite famished, so I made my way into the kitchen where Ruby was already seated. Qrow was absent. I hoped desperately that he kept his word about not telling anyone. Tai set dinner down on the table and to my surprise it was pizza, topped with peppers, olives, many kinds of meats, even comically oversized sausages. There was a plain pepperoni pizza that I presumed was for Ruby, as she made a face at the sight of the nearly overloaded pizza.

I grabbed a piece of the works pizza and received an incredulous look from Tai and Ruby for my troubles. "It looked good," I told them before I took a bite. Pizza was a food that I was accustomed to eating multiple times a week, and it was always a works pizza. This pizza was honestly the most delicious one that I'd ever eaten. Tai and Ruby had apparently recovered from their brief stupor and had started eating. Tai took a piece of works and Ruby took one of the pepperoni. I had finished one slice and was on to the next, a pepperoni this time. Until I could properly gauge how nightly meals worked I would have to be careful. I ate one more slice of the works pizza then excused myself to my room. No one questioned it, for which I was thankful. Once I got to my room I plugged my scroll in and changed into my nighties.

Opening my scroll, I went to the Circular app. I discovered that there was a way to make a post directly from my profile, so I figured that that was the best way to tell Yang's friends that I was out of the hospital. I kept it short and simple, mainly stating what I had told Cheri. With that officially out of the way, I set my scroll in the dock on my nightstand. I also set it to silent so any late-night messages would get put off until morning. I laid down on the bed, my mind going at a million miles per hour. Qrow knew my secret. I'll admit that I haven't the faintest idea as to how I could go about thwarting Cinder's plan other than training my ass off. I had to get stronger, and quickly. I had to fix the mistakes that cost Yang her arm. There was so much to do and less than two years to do it. It might seem like forever away, but two years is practically nothing.

I dived into the covers of the bed and planted my face in the pillow, tears threatening to spill out. C'mon, get it together. You're a grown ass woman. At least I thought I was. I was currently controlling a 15-year-old girl's body like a damn VR simulator, who's to say that I didn't pick up her hormones with it? I huffed annoyedly and turned face up. It seemed that sleep wouldn't come easy tonight.


	2. Chapter 2

Waking up on the third day was far less instantaneous. I groggily sat up and checked my scroll. The time read 7:53 A.M. I yawned deeply, wincing at my morning breath. Coffee. Need coffee. I checked my scroll and thankfully there were no messages from anyone, save for a few comments on my post wishing me a quick recovery. I glanced into where Ruby was sleeping. Upon making sure that she wouldn't stir, I quietly left the room. After a quick shower, I trod downstairs into the kitchen, still half asleep. Thankfully the first cabinet I checked held my prize. The wonderful, black ambrosia that made all my morning problems go away. I reset the coffee maker and added three scoops of grounds, savoring the delicious smell. Once the coffee was brewing, I retrieved a leftover slice of pizza from the fridge. The best part about having pizza for dinner is having pizza for breakfast the next day. I flipped on the television, browsing through the channels until something caught my eye. Eventually I settled on a documentary about the Faunus Rights Revolution.

A few minutes later, the coffee was done. The mugs were hanging from hooks that were mounted on the underside of the top cabinet, so I didn't have to go digging for them. After a little guesswork as to where the sugar was, I finally had my first cup of coffee since waking up on Remnant. The only kind of flavored creamer in the house was peppermint mocha, which was my favorite back on Earth. Taking a sip of that piping hot coffee was the first moment I had felt like I was at home on Remnant. I felt the stress of all of Salem's machinations melt away. The documentary had apparently been close to ending, as now there was some sort of wildlife show that had a small group of explorers trouncing around in the Vacuan desert. I placed my coffee on the table, as it was still too hot to drink from easily.

"Morning, Yang." I heard Ruby greet me as she descended the stairs, clad in her adorable Beowulf chibi pajamas.

"Morning, sis." I replied, still somewhat sleepy. Unable to resist the coffee any longer, I took a large gulp. Surprisingly, it wasn't that hot. A few seconds later I had chugged the entire cup. The warmth in my gut was pleasing, but I wanted to savor a cup, so I began the arduous task of going back into the kitchen and making another cup. Turning to Ruby, I asked "Want a cup?"

She replied with a blank look. "You made coffee." Had I crossed some forbidden taboo? "Dad banned you from making coffee." A wave of panic washed through me. Yep, definitely crossed a taboo.

"Huh?" I asked tentatively. I glanced at the coffee pot, now wary of it.

"Last time you made coffee on your own, you nearly set the kitchen on fire." Ruby squeaked, now seemingly exasperated with me. I looked at the coffee pot again, wondering how on Earth Yang could have possibly set it on fire.

"Well, it's not on fire now, and it probably won't be for the foreseeable future." I countered, hoping to fix whatever I had done. Ruby stared at the coffee pot as if it would combust at any moment. With a shrug, I finished making my second cup and went to go sit back down. The men in the documentary were now exploring a sandy cave that had what looked like a drawing of Grimm on the walls. I grabbed the remote to turn up the volume when Tai came down the stairs. At the same time, Ruby was walking into the living room with a cup of coffee.

Tai and Ruby stopped and stared at each other comically. Tai's gaze went first to Ruby's cup of coffee, then mine currently resting on the table, then to me. He sniffed the air, seemingly expecting there to be fire. Cutting off whatever the elder Xiao Long was going to say, Ruby pointed a finger at me accusingly. "Yang did it." Unfazed by their standoff, I took another sip of my coffee. The group on TV had apparently encountered a desert dwelling King Taijitu. The huntsmen that was with the group leapt into the chasm, sword glowing red with fire dust. I was enraptured by the spectacle of combat. Seeing it animated and seeing it in person, albeit by proxy through a television, were two completely different things. The way the sword rang out every time the Hunter sliced at the bone mask of the Grimm. The wicked combination of searing and carving flesh whenever the Hunter managed a hit on the body of the beast. I was snapped out of my stupor by a large calloused hand waving in front of my face.

"You know you're not supposed to touch the coffee maker." Taiyang said condescendingly. Personally, I was offended, but the Yang part of me had to act submissive.

"I guess I just forgot," I said with a shrug. "I mean, I didn't burn anything, and the coffee is actually pretty good." I offered, hoping that he would drop it. In the brief moment of distraction, the Hunter had killed the white Taijitu head and was nearly finished with the black one. He ran up the wall, leaping off it at around fifteen feet. He hurtled towards the Grimm, who roared in defiance. I couldn't see exactly what happened, as the screen was suddenly overcome with a flash of light, but once it cleared, the Hunter was still standing and the Taijitu had been cut in half horizontally. Tai had gone into the kitchen, presumably to make a cup of coffee. The explorers decided to call it a day and began to exit the cave, their Hunter had apparently used a lot of aura fighting the Taijitu.

Tai sat down next to me and gestured to a large binder on the table. "This is the work that I picked up from Signal yesterday. You can start on it today if you want." I leaned forward and grabbed the binder, setting my coffee down in the process. The first page held what looked like an assignment from a class on Dust usage. The binder was sectioned off, each class taking up around half of an inch of width. "It's for last month and this month, so you'll be all caught up when you go back." He added as I browsed through the work. It would be difficult, and I would more than likely have to consult at least a dozen text books, but I think I could have this licked in a week, maybe two at the most. Compared to going to college and then law school, this was child's play.

"Thanks, Dad." I lay the notebook on my lap and gave him a one-armed hug. "I'll try not to do this too fast." I half-joked. I didn't really see any reason to put off doing this work, so I grabbed my coffee and the binder and headed upstairs. Once I reached my room, I closed and locked the door. I placed the binder on my desk and went to Yang's bookshelf to check out where her textbooks were. Thankfully, I found several that seemed to fit the criteria of high school-esque textbooks. There were your basic books on math, science, literature, etc. What stood out for me were the ones on Dust, Grimm anatomy, and Faunus history. It bugged me that the Faunus had a separate history book from the kingdoms. I opened to the first page and was greeted with what looked like a cave drawing of the first-time man found Faunus. I had no idea if it was accurate. With a grimace, I placed the book back on the shelf and grabbed the one on Dust.

'Dust and its Useful Applications' was the title of the book. A subtext read: 'All you'll need to know to effectively use it against the Grimm and beyond.' If this was the trend, then it's no wonder that Ruby was so naïve when it came to potentially killing criminals. Without any further ado, I began reading.

Several hours later, I had finished the book, skipping over the pages that held bookwork. A lot of things in the show made more sense now, considering the nature of Dust. Scientifically, humanity had a very good grasp on the applications of Dust. The origins, however, aren't as clear cut. Oh, there were several talked about theories about how Dust, everything from Dust being condensed Aura from long dead humans and Faunus to the core of the planet being made of Dust and everything found on the surface is the result of plate tectonics. The mostly accepted theory was that Aura and Dust were linked in some metaphysical way considering that humanity and Faunus kind could interact with the latter using the former. I placed the book on my desk, next to the binder full of work that I had to do, and checked the time. It was almost 3 P.M., six and a half hours after I had started reading. I should have been surprised by how long I had been reading, but I had long since accepted my thirst for learning. Most of my friends went to parties or to movies when we were in high school, whereas I stayed home and read books or went to the library to read. I didn't turn into a party animal until my college years. A knock on my door pulled me from my thoughts. I opened the door and was greeted by Ruby. She was holding a wooden case with Yang's emblem on it.

"I brought you Ember Celica. Dad had them packed away while you were in the hospital and he wanted me to give them back to you." I took the surprisingly heavy case from her and set it on my bed. The case was secured with a simple latch. Inside rested Yang's weapon, shiny clean and obviously maintained during my stay in the hospital. Stored with the weapons were around a dozen rounds of three different kinds of shotgun shells. Red ones with a bright yellow star on them, orange gold with red tips, and violet colored with golden accents around the end cap and tip of the shell.

"Thank you, Ruby." I closed the case once more and turned to Yang's sister. "C'mon, want something to snack? I studied right through lunch." Ruby gave a short chuckle as she followed me.

"Yang studying? Not setting the house on fire when you make coffee? Looks that like hit on the head did you some good." Ruby joked. My smiled turned sour, becoming a grimace almost instantly. Yang had technically died from that Ursa attack. Practically everything reminded me of it. I didn't remember the details, but whenever I think of it I get this overwhelming feeling of fear. Ruby had noticed that I stopped, and apparently realized her mistake. "Oh, Yang. I'm sorry." She hugged me tightly. Unable to help myself, I returned the gesture.

"It's alright, Ruby. It was just a very traumatic experience for me." I squeezed the reaper tighter, letting her know that I wasn't upset at her. "Let's see if there's anything fun to eat downstairs." Ruby sniffled and wordlessly followed me down to the living room. I couldn't see or hear Tai anywhere, so I figured that he had gone out again. I suddenly remembered something from the first episode of RWBY. "Hey, what do you say about me making you some chocolate chip cookies?" Ruby's eyes suddenly filled with a brightness that I hadn't yet seen in them before.

"Oh boy, can we?" She had recovered her previous energy and was now practically shaking with anticipation.

"You help me get the ingredients together and I'll make them." Before I even finished the sentence, Ruby was rushing around the kitchen gathering the stuff I would need. Chocolate chip cookies were my go to during my cycle, so I had the recipe pretty much memorized. I retrieved the butter, eggs. and imitation vanilla from the refrigerator. Good to see some things don't change, no matter what planet I'm on. Measuring was the most time-consuming part of baking, and within five minutes I had successfully assembled enough batter to make at least two dozen cookies. A few quick passes with baking spray later and I had deposited the cookies into the oven. I set a timer on my scroll for ten minutes, enough time for the cookies to cook through and have the chocolate be gooey. Ruby was fidgeting in the chair, obviously impatient.

In what didn't seem like ten minutes, the timer went off, Ruby dashed forward, most likely through use of her semblance, and already had a plate out by the time I reached the kitchen. I took the cookies out and slid them onto the cooling rack, Ruby already hovering over them as a wolf would a wounded deer. I could practically feel her impatience, so I grabbed a glass and filled it with milk from the fridge. I put half of a dozen cookies onto a plate and handed them to her, with the glass. "Don't eat them too fast, I don't want Dad mad at me for spoiling your appetite." Of course, by this time, she had already eaten two and was halfway through her third, the glass of milk having gone untouched. I left the remaining cookies on the cooling rack, taking only a couple for myself, and going to sit next to Ruby on the couch.

"These are really good, Yang." Ruby said, her mouth full as she chewed her fourth cookie.

"I'm glad you like them," I returned the compliment with a smile, having only finished one of my cookies. Ruby paused before the fifth, only to pound half of the glass of milk in one go. She let out a pleased sigh, and resumed her cookie massacre. I heard the front door open and glanced behind me to see Tai walking in, his hands full of groceries. He seemed to be struggling, so I leapt over the back of the couch and grabbed one of the bags. It weighed easily twenty pounds, something I would have struggled with on Earth, but miniscule with the strength found in Yang's body. He thanked me and we carried the bags into the kitchen.

"Thanks, pumpkin." He began unloading the bags when he noticed the cookies on the cooling rack. He paused for a moment, before glancing out into the living room where Ruby was leaning back on the couch with a pleased expression on her face. A clean plate and an empty glass both rest on the table. "Who made the cookies?" He glanced at the cookies warily before giving them a test sniff. With a hum of curiosity, he took a bite of one. "Hey these aren't bad. Guess Ruby really picked up the cooking gift from her mother." I smirked inwardly.

"Actually," I grabbed another cookie from the tray. "I made them." I took a bite, the chocolate still warm and slightly gooey. He glanced at the cookies once more, before shrugging.

"I guess after the coffee I shouldn't be surprised." He popped another whole cookie into his mouth and continued unloading the groceries. Once everything was put away, I caught Ruby trying to sneak a couple more cookies. Tai had gone upstairs, so it was the two of us down here. I knew she would try to give me the puppy eyes, so I acquiesced and let her have two more cookies.

Before I could get the chance to add anything, she stuffed both cookies into her mouth and walked back into the living room. I put the remaining cookies into the cookie jar next to the refrigerator. Out of habit, I glanced at my wrist. Instead of the watch I was expecting, I saw plain flesh. I resolved to get a wristwatch as soon as possible. I checked my scroll, and it showed the time to be half past four. I kind of wanted to go study some more. A chime drew my attention. I had received a message from someone named Beige. From what I remember of his profile, he was a student at Signal and good friends with Yang.

It read 'Hey, heard you were out of the hospital, wanna hang? My mom is gonna be out of town until next weekend and the fridge is stocked. There are a few ppl here already.' I had no idea what to make of this. My college experience told me that 'stocked' implied alcohol. On one hand, I doubt that even Qrow would approve of this. On the other hand, if I abstained I might appear antisocial, which would be out of character and draw suspicion. On the metaphorical third hand, if I went and didn't get found out, then it would do more to cement my cover. Then again, I could be overthinking this and he's only inviting me to have a food party or something. Part of me thought that was a lie, though. Then again, it is afternoon on a Sunday, so I really could only be overthinking it. There was only one problem. Okay, there were several. Even should Tai allow me to go, I have no idea where he lives. A thought occurred to me and I pulled up Circular. I went to Beige's profile and sure enough, it listed an address in his information. The last thing to do was to program his address into the maps app. According to the app, it would take half an hour to get there via walking. Easily doable.

"Hey dad," I called out to the living room, figuring that he was sitting down. At first, I feared that he had gone outside or upstairs, but a reply came shortly after.

"Yeah?"

"Can I go to a friend's house for a couple hours?" I half hoped he said no so I could turn the offer down.

"Which friend?" Was his reply. Ok, not a no, but not a yes.

"Beige, he said he had a couple friends over and wanted to know if I could hang out for a bit." I called back, now pacing nervously.

"Sure, be home before eight." He replied. Damn it. Well, I guess there's no backing out now. I replied to Beige in the affirmative and headed upstairs to get dressed. I found an outfit that was similar to the one Yang wore post time skip, save for a deep golden coat instead of a tan coat. I thought about taking Ember Celica, as a precaution. It seemed like I was being paranoid, but I'd rather have it and not need it than vice versa. I snapped the bracelets on and headed back downstairs. Ruby was snoozing on the couch, snoring softly. I smiled at the sight, covering her up with a blanket before heading outside. I heard loud clanging from the shed. If I remembered correctly, Bumblebee was stored in there. I had a hunch that Yang hadn't gotten Bumblebee yet at this point in the timeline, so I didn't even bother checking. I had driven a motorcycle before, but it was while I was still in college and I haven't had much opportunity to practice in the meantime. Glancing at my scroll, I confirmed I was heading the right direction and picked up the pace.

It seemed like a lot sooner than half an hour before a house that my scroll labeled as my destination came into view. I saw several sleek looking cars parked outside, so it seemed that whatever was going on in there was in full swing. I walked up the steps and knocked on the door. It opened, revealing the face of Beige, with what looked like a beer in his hand. My sense of smell told me that was far from the only one open in the house. He beamed at me for a moment before noticing my hairstyle change.

"You cut your hair?" His voice was deeper than I was expecting from a 15-year-old kid. I replied with a half-smirk.

"Not by choice," I moved a hand up to reveal the still healing scar that partially jutted out from my hairline. From what I saw in the mirror, it was over an inch wide and I had no idea how long. It no longer hurt, which was good, and it apparently impressed Beige.

"Damn, that's wicked." He handed me the unopened beer in his other hand. "C'mon, let's go have some fun." He walked back into the house. I followed, shutting the door behind me. I twisted the top off of the beer and gave an experimental sniff. It smelled like watered down Heineken. I sipped at it and it was surprisingly not bad. The label read Icy Rainstorm. I entered the main room where half a dozen others were sitting around a large table filled with snacks and drinks. I recognized every single one from Yang's friend list, thankfully. They all did a double take at my new hairdo.

With a short laugh I answered their unasked question. "Yes, get it out of your system." I sipped the beer and took a seat next to a muscled guy who I remembered as Brock. Small talk resumed shortly after that and the party started up in full swing. At first, I was reluctant to drink. I didn't want to seem stingy, so one turned into two, which turned into three. It's odd, but the beer seemed to make all of my problems melt away into nothingness. My thoughts were solely focused on the here and now. The here and now being a party that I was actually having fun at. Around an hour into the party, we got to talking about Yang's accident. I told them the honest truth. Not the whole truth, obviously. All I saw was that It was apparently done by an Ursa and that I didn't remember much about when it happened.

Several hours and many beers later, I had moved on from tipsy and was clear into drunk territory. The world was spinning slightly, though I had been drunk many times before in my college days and knew how to counteract the beer's centrifugal pull on the Earth. Beige, a girl named Elise, and myself were the only ones left. I opened another beer, my seventh, I think. Right before I could take a sip, there was a knocking on the door. Beige stopped his story and went to go answer the door.

"Is Yang here?" I heard Qrow's familiar gravelly voice from the direction that Beige had walked off in. My mind went into full panic mode. Shit, why was he here? I glanced at Elise, who had passed out, and then back towards where it seemed that Beige was unsuccessfully convincing Qrow that I wasn't here anymore. I ducked into the kitchen and saw that the rear door was open. I walked as fast as my legs would allow me and was finally out-

Thump. The door was not open. It was a plate glass door that was indeed shut. "Damn it, betrayed by a door." I mumbled as I felt someone incredibly strong pick me up by the scruff of my shirt. The person smelled of alcohol. Though maybe that was me. I went to take another sip of my beer but it was taken away from me by the same person who was kidnapping me. "Hey I was drinking that!" I slurred angrily at Qrow, who was having none of it. He tossed the still full drink into the garbage and dragged me out the door.

"You're lucky, if this were the real Yang I'd drag her home and leave her at the tender mercy of her father." He grumbled angrily once we had gotten outside away from my friends. "Who by the way, sent me to get you when you didn't show up at 8 P.M. like you were supposed to." I looked towards the sun and was surprised to find that the sun had set completely. "It's half past 10, in case you were wondering." He added as he hoisted me into the back of the car.

The sight of it confused me, since I figured he would use his crow form. "Since when do you own a car?" I asked Qrow, who had already started it up and was leaving the house.

"Since I can't fly everywhere," He deadpanned.

"But," I pouted. "You can turn into a crow." I reminded him, then giggled at the bad joke. "Hehe, Qrow can turn into a crow." I mumbled to myself. It seemed that he was displeased with my humor.

"Don't you start, I got enough of that from Summer when she first found out." Qrow growled at me, purposefully taking a hard right and making me fall over, as neither of us had secured our seat belt. We eventually pulled into a large motel. He yanked me out of the car, hoisting me into a bridal carry, and helped me to a room on the ground floor.

"Ooh la la, skipping the wining and dining, are we?" I asked in sultry voice. Qrow stared hard at me, practically oozing with anger.

He tossed me unceremoniously facedown onto one of the twin beds. "Shut up, kid." He grumbled and then tossed a bag of cleaning supplies at me.

"Don't call me kid," I snapped at him. "I'm probably as old as you are." I grumbled as I sat up and looked through the bag of stuff. It mostly looked like hygienic products. Evidently, I would have to use these before we headed home.

"Oh yeah?" He countered, "How old are you?" He crossed his arms and shot me a look that said he wanted to employ violence.

"I'm-" I started, before remembering the circumstances that led to my arrival here. "I would have been 33, in February." I set aside the bag and looked at Qrow.

"Well you sure as Hell don't act like it." He jabbed back at me. "What were you thinking anyway? Getting drunk like that is stupid. What if someone had taken advantage of you?" I could see his point, but I still think he was overreacting.

"It's not like I was at a party with strangers." I countered. "I knew everyone that was there. I spent time yesterday memorizing the names and faces of everyone on Yang's friend list." I held up my left Ember Celica to Qrow. "Besides that, I was armed." He ceded my point, and took a swig from his flask.

"Well, I already told Tai that you were staying here for the night." I opened my mouth to ask if he had told Tai about what happened. "And before you ask, no, I didn't tell him." I pulled a roll of mint candies out of the bag and popped one into my mouth. Hangover breath was not fun to smell. Plus, mints had the fortunate side effect of calming my stomach. I had done it many times before.

"Thank you," I said in submission, the realization of how my fate truly rested in Qrow's hands suddenly upon me. It seemed that the booze had worn off, leaving me surprising lucid. Of course, with lucidity came the crushing weight of my task ahead of me. I felt a bit like Harry Potter in that this fight would come with either Salem's or my death. Sadly, I doubted I would ever grow strong enough to combat her directly. I sighed sadly and flopped back onto the bed. Qrow, evidently, didn't like the sound of my sigh.

"What's wrong now?" He asked irritably. I glanced over at him and noticed that his bed was messed up, likely from having been slept in. Had Tai interrupted his sleep to get him to come get me? Thoughts for later.

"I'm just thinking too much," I replied cryptically. "I tend to do that a lot, overthinking." I added after a moment.

"Sure as Hell didn't think about your decision to go to that party tonight." Qrow muttered as he flipped the TV on.

"Actually, I did. I weighed the risks of not going versus going. If I had opted not to go, I might have been ostracized by my peers at Signal, versus going and getting caught which would have arguably reinforced my cover as Yang in Tai's eyes. It was a win-win." I explained to him.

He flicked the TV off and turned to me. "How does getting caught make Tai less suspicious that something is up with you?"

I shot a cheeky grin at him. "The way that Beige worded the text implied to me that this isn't the first time that Yang has gone to his house for something like this. Also, in the Yellow trailer, which was Yang's trailer, she went to a bar in Vale, Junior's bar more specifically, looking for information on Raven." He frowned, disappointed, but impressed.

"And how'd you manage to figure all that out?" Qrow asked as the clock in the room chimed 11 P.M.

"I'm a lawyer. You have to know how to read people and situations in my profession. It's practically mandatory. Any lawyer who can't do that isn't gonna be one for long." I yawned, feeling my jaw pop as I did so. The feeling of sleepiness suddenly came on like a tidal wave. I plopped backwards onto the bed, tossing the bag of hygienic supplies onto the nightstand. Qrow was doing something on his scroll.

"Goodnight Qrow." I called out before getting comfortable on the soft bed. He seemed content to ignore me, so I reclined fully into the covers and relaxed, waiting for the sweet embrace of sleep.

A loud bang started me out of my slumber. A quick glance at the wall clock placed the time at quarter 'til 8 in the morning. I looked around for the source of the noise and saw Qrow pacing back and forth, holding his scroll to his ear.

"C'mon damnit. Pick up!" He growled into the device. After a moment, he let out a frustrated yell and threw the scroll onto the empty bed. He glanced at me, a pondering look on his face. Before I could react, he tossed a set of keys at me. "Take my car and go home, I'll meet you there. I have something that I need to take care of." He grabbed his scroll and pocketed it, before walking towards the door.

Before he could leave, I called out "Is it about Amber?" He froze, which told me all I needed to know.

"Ozpin sent her on a mission outside the kingdom, and only just now told me about it. I'm going to meet her. I don't know when I'll be back." He walked out the door without further pomp and left me alone in a hotel room. I gathered the stuff Qrow gave me, my scroll, and the keys. The car was parked in the same spot it was last night, slightly crooked and taking up one and a half spots. I unlocked the door and tossed the bag into the passenger seat. Thankfully there was a dock where my scroll would sit comfortably. I pulled up the GPS and plugged in the Xiao Long house address.

Driving a Dust-powered car was a very similar to driving an electric car. It was quiet, smooth, and was pretty easy to drive. The Dust powered car seemed to be a hybrid between combustion and electric, in that it had a gear shifter similar to a combustion vehicle. The drive over gave me some time to think about what I would say to Tai when I got home. He would undoubtedly ask why I was showing up alone, driving Qrow's car. Maybe namedropping the Maiden would be a good way to throw him off balance. If he knew about the Maidens and everything. If Raven knew, then Tai most likely knew. I was drawn out of my thoughts by a turn that would take me out of the city proper. After that it was pretty easy going straight to home. Within minutes I was pulling up to the driveway of the Xiao Long house. My house. I parked it in a clearing and got out, grabbing the bag and my scroll in the process. Tai was waiting at the door, confused that I had shown up alone.

"Uncle Qrow had to go on a mission, so he told me to bring his car over here, rather than leave it at the hotel." I told him truthfully. "He said he didn't know when he would be back." I handed him the keys as a gesture of good faith and headed inside. Ruby was absent, now doubt in school at Signal. I started to head upstairs, but was stopped by Tai.

"Hey, don't think you can run away. I wanted to talk to you." His tone of voice was neutral, but the words made me nervous. What did he want to talk about? I retreated the few steps I had managed to make and sat down on the couch. Tai opted to remain standing, which didn't ease my nerves any. "Did Qrow say why he was leaving?"

"Something about someone named Amber." I told him, mentally enjoying the way he stiffened at the mention of the Fall Maiden. Hopefully that little knowledge bomb would be enough to dissuade him from any further questions. I doubted it would, as he would inevitably want to know what happened at the party that made me so late.

"I see," He paused, taking a moment to think. "Why were you so late yesterday?" I knew this was coming, and I had already prepared an excuse for it.

"Beige was catching me up on all the gossip that has been going down since I was in the hospital. Plus, there were some other people from Signal there and we lost track of time playing video games." I didn't delve into specifics, and I hoped that he wouldn't ask, as I had not prepared beyond a few sentences. Thankfully for me, he seemed placated by this answer and walked off towards the kitchen, pressing buttons on his scroll as he did. I rushed upstairs, seeing the box that I kept Ember Celica in. After fiddling with the latch, I finally managed to get them off and set them into the box. My wrists were slightly sore, likely from the metal wearing on my skin for too long. I grabbed a change of clothes from my closet and sped over to the shower. There were twice as many clean towels as yesterday. I placed my spare clothes on the sink counter.

I went over to the mirror and did my best to examine the scar left by the Ursa. From what I was able to discern, it went nearly the whole way over my scalp. It started half an inch below my hairline and extended all the way to the back of my head, stopping right at the edge of my cranium. You could trace a line from the top of my ears to the back of my head and it would meet the scar. This must have been horrifying for Ruby to find on her own. It reminded me that I needed to get stronger. That this body was weak and frail, despite Yang's training. I noticed a flash of red in my eyes. It appeared that I could tap into Yang's semblance after all. The thought of it spurred me on, and I focused on that feeling. I grabbed onto that mote of warmth inside me and pulled. My eyes flared blood red, and I felt the energy of ten people build up inside me.

"This is incredible," I whispered to myself in awe. Realizing how close I probably was to bursting into flames, I took a deep calming breath and focused on releasing control of Yang's semblance. Slower than I'd like, the feeling of heat and energy faded away, and the lilac slowly returned to my eyes. I had worked up a considerable sweat tapping into Yang's power. Yet another reason for me to take a shower. My shower had relieved the dull ache that using Yang's semblance had brought on. It seemed that without adrenaline powering Yang, using her semblance actually hurt her. It's not surprising, considering that her semblance is essentially overclocking of her body. Dismissing the thought, I threw on the t-shirt and shorts that I had picked out and headed back into my room. It was just after 9, so I had practically the entire day to do work. I decided to tackle the common subjects first, as I likely wouldn't even have to pick up a book to finish them, save for history. Physics, Algebra, Science, Biology, and Vytalian, which I presumed was an English-type class involving grammar and sentence structure. The work was rather easy and I finished the Algebra part of it in a few hours. My stomach was rumbling, as I hadn't had breakfast with Qrow. A glance at the wall clock told me it was five minutes until noon. I stood up and stretched, taking great pleasure in the way my back popped. The house was quiet now, Tai having evidently left somewhere. I heard a chime from my scroll. It was a message from Ruby. She was dressed in a similar looking outfit to the one she wore in Volume 1. It was a picture of her at a work station, she was working on what looked like a bastardized version of Crescent Rose. The attached text was 'prototype almost finished'.

She looked so happy in the picture. 'What are you going to name it?' I replied and closed my scroll. I knew what she would name her weapon, but Yang didn't. Thankfully, there was still some pizza left in the fridge from the other day, so I settled with a few slices of that and headed back into the living room. The pizza was starting to go stale, but it was still pretty good. I flipped on the TV and was found that it was on a cartoon channel, undoubtedly Ruby's doing. I hadn't really had an interest in cartoons, despite the fact that I was technically living one. I flipped through the channels, not really finding anything interesting. After what seemed like a hundred channels, I found myself back on the cartoon channel. I sighed and turned the TV off, tossing the remote to the end of the couch and finishing up the last few bites of my pizza. Ruby hadn't replied, and I figured that she wouldn't until the school day had ended. I had no way of knowing when that was. Which reminded me that I needed to find out Yang's schedule.

"Tai might have put something for me in that binder." I thought aloud as I deposited my plate in the sink and hurried upstairs. I checked the drawer of my dresser where I had my notebook hidden to make sure it was still safe, which thankfully it was. After doing that, I opened up the binder and searched for any extra notes or lists that Tai might have left inside for me. At the very end of the pages, I found a sheet that was exactly what I was looking for. It contained a Monday – Friday list of what classes I would be taking, along with room numbers and names of teachers. On Monday, I was taking all of the basic stuff. Tuesday was split between weapon maintenance, Grimm studies, and Dust usage. Wednesday had the same classes as Monday, and Thursday was the same as Tuesday. Friday was simply listed as 'Combat Practice', which I presume meant proper techniques on how to combat the Grimm properly and sparring.

I closed the binder and placed it back onto my desk. I considered doing more work, but I was beginning to go feel restless sitting inside all the time. Granted I had gone out last night, I hadn't really done anything outdoors. In my old life I would have killed to stay inside all day every day, but here I was practically going stir crazy. I hastily scrawled a note to Tai in case he returned and I was absent, and headed outside, grabbing Ember Celica along the way. Once the gauntlets were equipped, I took off at a slow jog, making sure to go slowly and keep track of where the house was. I kept up the slow and steady pace for around five minutes before stopping. I had gone pretty far into the woods behind the Xiao Long house. Satisfied that I was a good distance away, I took a deep breath and focused on the feeling that I got when I was drawing on Yang's semblance.

It was a lot more difficult to hold onto this time, like trying to hold onto something that was covered in oil. I felt my body heat up as I slowly got a grasp onto the semblance. Once I had managed to hold on, I pulled. Hard. My aura bled into the visible spectrum, a deep goldenrod yellow color and I knew that if I were to look into a mirror, my eyes would be that same blood red they had been earlier. The power I had felt earlier was miniscule compared to the energy coursing through me now. I looked at my hand, and to my surprise I saw golden flames. Out of curiosity, I picked up a dry leaf and watched as it practically disintegrated in my fingers. So, it seemed the fire was for more than show. In the show, Yang could punch well above her weight class with her Semblance active. I raised my right arm and took aim at a nearby tree.

"Here goes nothing," I muttered to myself. Faster than I thought possible, I lunged at the tree and struck. The impact sent a shock down my arm and knocked me onto my ass. It was painful, sure, but the tree had cracked in half from the hit. In my shock, it seemed that my Semblance had died out. The tree made a terrible racket as it fell, the sound practically thunderous in the once quiet forest. "Holy shit," I whispered in awe of my power. I got to my feet and observed the damage. The area where my fist had hit was charred, and smoldering, leaving a crater in the wood nearly a foot across. Not wanting to start a forest fire so close to home, I smothered it with dirt. I felt slightly winded from my efforts and started to make my way back home. On my way, I saw a black bird fly out of a tree. It looked much larger than a pigeon. It was flying away from me, so I couldn't tell if it was a Grimm or not. My instincts were leaning towards the latter, however. 'It could be Raven' a particularly insidious part of my mind whispered to me. Maybe it was my paranoia making it do so, but I wouldn't get far in this world without caution.

I reached home without further incident, passing by Qrow's parked car along the way. I checked my scroll and saw it was nearly 2 P.M. Ruby should be getting home soon. I entered the living room and was surprised to see that the house was still empty. I checked my scroll again to make sure that I didn't have any missed messages. There was nothing. I shrugged and went upstairs to my room. I was feeling rather tired from my brief excursion in the forest, so I took off Ember Celica and placed its case on my desk. Given that I was now within the safety of my home, I took a moment to observe the hand that I had punched the tree with. It looked completely fine, save for some discomfort when I flexed my fingers. Aura truly was miraculous. It wasn't long before I was out like a light.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Huge thanks to my two beta readers for helping clean this chapter up.

* * *

 _"Hey Jess, you still on for that dinner party on Saturday?" My friend Natalie asked me. She was a consultant for a big law firm whom I had gotten many clients from. My first few cases had been great successes, and I was feeling confident about my future in law._

 _"Sure, usual spot at seven?" I asked as I got into the driver seat of my Camry. This was my first big purchase after my career had taken off. I saved up enough money to buy it outright and it was worth it. It had great gas mileage, was low maintenance, and it looked cool too. I had the color changed from a gold to a deep, almost maroon red after I bought it, red being my favourite color._

 _"Yep, see you then. Bye." With a click, I hung up my phone and dropped it back into my purse. My Camry started up as easily as it always did, and I backed out of the spot. A couple of minutes later I was out of the parking garage and on the main road heading back to my apartment. It was rather late at night, meaning that there wasn't much traffic. I passed no more than three cars by the time I came to the intersection that I needed to turn. I glanced at my watch and it read 10:24 P.M., much later than I normally got off work. The light turned green and I began to turn. Suddenly I saw bright headlights coming from the direction I was about to turn. It was like the world slowed to a crawl. Acting on instinct, I hastily threw the car into reverse and floored it. My Camry screeched across the pavement, narrowly avoiding the bellowing tractor trailer that had run the red light. Already, I heard police sirens coming from the direction that the truck had come from._

 _My heart threatened to leap right out of my chest. That was fucking close! I took a few deep, ineffective calming breaths before shifting back into drive and heading down the street, passing by a pair of police cars speeding after the runaway truck. Eventually, my mind calmed down enough to where I could think about something other than driving. With practiced ease, I blindly fished my phone out of my purse and placed it on the hands-free dock mounted just above my radio. "Call Nat." I vocalized slowly and clearly, so the voice recognition would pick it up. The phone chirped once, and almost immediately it began calling my friend._

 _"Hey, what's up? Change your mind about the party?" Her light and easygoing voice calmed my frazzled nerves._

 _I breathed a sigh of relief as I pulled into my designated parking spot. I was home. Safe. "You're_ not _gonna believe what just happened."_

The lavender colored ceiling greeted me when I opened my eyes. That dream had told me that there was more going on than my waning memory of my old life was telling me. I grabbed my scroll and opened the Sword app. I had not received any messages from the stranger since the one about Amber, though it appears that I missed one, since there was an unread message in it sent almost four hours ago. It was another set of coordinates, along with a time and date. Three days from now at 9 AM. I plugged the coordinates in to a map app and it pointed to a spot in Vale near the place where the industrial, the commercial, and the residential districts came together, practically at the center of the city. No words this time. I asked what this was for and all that they said was ' _You'll know what to do when you get here._ ' I took a moment to write this down on the second page of my journal, and returned to the app.

Despite my increasingly peculiar interactions with the stranger, there was one thing gnawing at me, something that I needed an answer to: 'Where is Yang?'

' _You are Yang_.' was its reply. I grumbled in frustration before sending another message.

'Where is the original Yang?' But instead of a fast reply, I was only met with silence. This was a first. Usually if it couldn't tell me something then it would say so. After a solid minute, I got a reply.

' _Gone_.'

'Where?' was my answer.

' _I don't know_.'

How could it not know? From what I've been able to glean, the thing that brought me here is essentially a god. Power over the multiverse, the ability to play with souls like they were children's toys, and seeming omniscience to name a few. 'How can you not know?' This time the reply took much longer than any other, and after a solid five minutes I was ready to give up. Just when I had started to leave the room, my scroll chimed. ' _I can't sense her on Remnant nor on Earth. I suspect that she has passed on. Your arrival here was messy. Enough so that I don't know where the real Yang went_.' I was stunned. This was the message that it had sent, and it actually told me the truth. Or at least I'm pretty sure it did.

'How did I get here, and don't lie to me.' I sent, and like before, received a reply instantly.

' _I brought you here_.'

I growled in frustration, sending back a 'who are you?'. As soon as my finger touched the send button, my scroll chirped.

' _A friend_. _If you need a name, call me Izanami._ ' Was its reply. Before I could touch any other keys, another message came. ' _I can't tell you_.' I had been about to send 'how did I die?', which was really fucking creepy that whatever brought me here could allegedly read my mind.

'What can you tell me?' I sent instead. This time the reply took a few seconds, as if whatever was sending it had to think about the answer.

' _Beware the Locksmith_.' I would have yelled at my scroll, if I believed it would do any good. Hating this stupid cryptic nonsense, I closed the scroll with far more force than necessary and tossed it onto the bed. 'Beware the Locksmith.' What the Hell did that mean? It was capitalized, so clearly it was someone's title.

Well, there was nothing I could do about it now. My head hurt, and I felt the beginnings of a migraine coming on. The wall clock in the hallway said it was nearly dinnertime. I found Ruby sitting on the couch, a tired expression on her face. I sat down next to her and wrapped her in a hug.

"What's wrong, Rubes?" I asked curiously as she leaned into the embrace.

She yawned sleepily, "We started physical training today. It was way harder than training with Uncle Qrow." It's always hard to adjust to an intense workout regimen, but I figured that Qrow would go easy on her during their training, at least at first. I recalled Ruby saying that she had just started training with him over the summer, when Yang was injured.

After a while Ruby perked up and was back to her usual chipper self. She apparently had some homework that one of her teachers gave her. We had a brief conversation about her weapon, which she was calling 'Super Awesome Scythe of Awesomeness', hey eyes gleaming excitedly as she told me about the ridiculous name. Although, she admitted that it was a temporary name when I asked her about it. I wanted to see if she came up with the name for her weapon on her own or if someone else suggested it. For now, though, I would wait. I had been meticulously reading through my notes on future events, making absolute sure that I hadn't missed anything important when my scroll chimed. It was a message from Qrow. It read 'Everything's okay. Coming home in a couple days.' I had planned to leave a day early to get a lay of the land, so it appeared that I would be unable to talk with him until after I got back. Whenever that was.

As it had already been close to the end of the day when I returned from my trip into the forest, dinner and then sleep passed quickly and without much social interaction. The next two days were much of the same, and I managed to finish all the rudimentary school work fairly easily and take a good chunk out of the Remnant-specific work.

On the day I was supposed to go to Vale, however, something unexpected happened. Tinkering with Yang's semblance in the woods again, I had spent several hours of the last two days training with it and doing my best to fine tune its usage. I had managed to bring out the strength aspect of it without many traces of the tells. I was, physically, equal to the strength that I had the first time I had truly tapped into the semblance. Visually, I looked almost exactly like normal Yang, save for a slight reddening of the eyes. They were a deep almost plum-like color instead of lilac that was the norm or red when fully using her semblance. I had no idea if I had achieved something unprecedented or if Yang had never had an opportunity to showcase this particular skill. The heat that normally permeated the area around my body when I was using Yang's semblance was not present. All that said, my attacks still had the ability to shatter stone with ease. The unexpected thing that happened was a beowolf stumbling upon my little battleground. I knew from my coursework that they usually travelled in packs of up to a dozen, possibly more, so I deployed Ember Celica and got ready for a fight. I pulled on Yang's semblance, the familiar heat welling up inside me.

It was a lot uglier and brutal looking than was depicted in the show. I could see every gruesome detail as if it was in high definition; the spittle dripping from its maw, the repeated flexing of its front claws digging into the dirt in anticipation of a potential kill, its eyes fixed on me, burning red that seemed to glow with an ethereal light. Just looking at the creature of Grimm made a pit of uneasiness form in my chest. Knowing that at the very least I could run from it if things turned south, I brushed the emotion aside. I presumed that its friends were probably moving in position to surround me given that in the show, beowolves always traveled in packs. The decision to strike first was an easy one.

Time seemed to pass in slow motion, and in the time it took me to reach the beowolf, it had not moved at all. Not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth, I delivered a cross right into its sternum, feeling the bones crack under its thick hide. Knowing that that wouldn't even be close to a killing blow, I lashed out with my other fist, catching it just behind its jawbone. The Grimm crumpled like a sack of bricks after that hit and was sent sliding across the grassy clearing about a dozen feet, tearing up the already ruined ground as it went. It didn't get up. My eyes raced around and confirmed that there were no more beowolves around. Odd, but then again, I didn't really know much about the Grimm aside from what I had read about and seen on the show. I would have to do more research after I got back.

With little as a thought, I released my control over Yang's semblance. Using it now had become as second nature as breathing to me, but i didn't know if it was because I technically _was_ Yang, or some other reason that I had yet to figure out. The imprint that the beowolf made as it slid across the ground was just one of many changes to the area that I had come to call my training grounds. Craters, broken boulders, and smashed trees littered the area profusely. I glanced at the new wristwatch that Tai had picked up for me on his last trip into the nearby town of Arial. In my free time, I had taken the time to meticulously study a map of Patch and Vale last night and now knew the name and location of pretty much every important spot. It was nearly lunchtime, so I set off home at a light run. Qrow was due back sometime today. When that was, however, was up in the air. Hopefully after I had already left for Vale. I had already gotten permission from Tai, citing a sleepover at a friend's house, which I also confirmed with said friend to have a place to stay overnight, as I had no idea how long I would be in Vale for.

I reached home in record time. The front door was open slightly, something that hadn't happened in the five days that I had lived here. I deployed Ember Celica easily and crept through the open door, careful not to move it. Tai was pacing back and forth in front of the TV, talking on his scroll to someone. I collapsed my weapons back to their stored form and closed the door. Tai didn't even hear me enter, it seemed.

"We'll see you then," He whispered, his voice projecting a tone that I hadn't heard since the hospital: worry. "Alright, thank you doctor." The scroll beeped once, signaling the end of a call. He pocketed the device and turned towards me. He froze momentarily. "Oh, you're home." He sounded nervous, which set me on edge.

"Is everything alright?" I asked tentatively.

"Come sit down, honey." He spoke, his voice soft and comforting, as he gestured to the couch. I had a deep sense of foreboding, but I couldn't let it show.

"If it's alright, I'd rather stand. I'm still pumped up on adrenaline from my workout." A lie, but passable as the truth. He frowned at my reply.

"The doctor wanted me to let you know to take it easy for a little while. He said that it would take some time before your aura returned to normal levels and doesn't want you to exert yourself." He frowned again, clearly apprehensive after the phone call. I let out an internal sigh of relief. It wasn't serious.

"Well, don't worry. I've been practicing, and I've got a pretty good handle on aura control." I nearly activated my semblance, before I remembered that I was standing in a very flammable building. Instead, I channeled the feeling of my aura. The two were similar, in the way that identical twins of the same gender were, but there were subtle differences that I had learned to pick up on in my brief period of training. Foremost, the fire that I felt when I activated my semblance was hot, burning almost. Like stepping into a sauna. My aura was much more muted. Like a warm hug or wearing clothes fresh from the dryer on a cool, autumn day. I had practiced substantially with both aura and semblance over the last few days. I grasped that comforting warmth and opened the floodgates. My aura quickly bled into the visible spectrum, cascading across my skin in varying shades of yellow. After a couple seconds, I released my hold on my aura and let it fade back to invisibility. Tai appeared dumbstruck.

"Well," He started, but trailed off as the words slipped from his grasp. He floundered for a few seconds more, before shaking his head as if to clear his thoughts. "That's unexpected. The doctor told me that it would take you several months to regain the same control you previously had on your aura, but here it seems that you've already managed to catch up in only a few days." He paused for a moment, before adding. "I was gonna have Qrow teach you how to improve your control over aura, but it seems a moot point now. If I didn't already know the answer, I'd ask if you'd been practicing your semblance as well."

"Yes, I have." I replied simply, allowing myself a small, knowing grin. Tai motioned for me to follow him outside, and I was led to a small clearing next to the house. I vaguely remember seeing this from season four when Yang and Tai were sparring out here before she left to go find Ruby.

"Show me." He stood still, his stance relaxed, yet alert. He was about to make a move, signaling the start of this impromptu spar, but I held up a hand to warn him. He paused, confused, but relented nonetheless. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. This time heat filled my body. The air around me heated up considerably, to the point where it was being distorted by the fire enveloping my body. I opened my eyes and saw Tai's expression. Instead of the apprehension he showed when I displayed my prowess with aura, I saw pride. He was proud of me. No, not of me. Of Yang. His daughter. In an instant the flames extinguished themselves as the despair deep in my heart overpowered my focus. He must have noticed my sudden change in mood, because he approached and wrapped me in a hug.

"What's wrong?" He asked in a voice that did nothing to ease my thoughts. Tai thought he was comforting his daughter, instead of a stranger possessing her body. Despite my self-loathing, I leaned into the embrace. I knew I had to say something, so I went with one of the excuses that I had been using a lot these past few days.

"Nothing, I just got thinking about the accident again." I spoke dismissively, my voice partially muffled by his chest.

"You can't keep focusing on it, or it'll eat you up inside. The best you can do is learn from it and try to do better next time." He was right. I couldn't dwell on it. I had to focus on the here and now, but every time I looked at Tai, those feelings threatened to resurface.

"I think-" I started, but I couldn't get the words out. Taking a deep breath, I continued "I need to be alone for a little while." Tai seemed reluctant to leave, but wordlessly agreed nonetheless and headed back into the house, leaving me alone outside. After about ten seconds to make sure he wasn't coming back out, I walked to the tree line and sat down against one of the oaks. A cold feeling of despair settled into my chest. It seemed like all my repressed emotions were wanting to erupt right now. The pained look on Tai's face at the mere mention of the accident that took Yang's life was heartbreaking. And he didn't even know that I wasn't Yang. He could never know. _They_ could never know. It was a hard truth, but it was the only truth that was acceptable. I could never do that to the two remaining members of the Xiao Long-Rose family. It would destroy them. I would have to step in to fill Yang's metaphorical shoes and then some. There would be time for self-loathing later. It was nearing the time for me to head to the ferry to mainland Vale, so I decided to head inside.

As I walked, I took a moment to collect my thoughts in preparation for tonight. Several things were at the forefront of my mind. Foremost of which was that I had to go somewhere and find something, which would supposedly help me out. The location was in Vale, the commercial district. I had plugged the coordinates into my scroll's map app and it couldn't give me a direct address. It was a seemingly random street corner near the line where the commercial district and the industrial district touched. The fact that it couldn't give me a specific place was sketchy. I doubted that I would be intentionally mislead by Izanami, given how much they had invested in my success, but I would still be careful regardless. My thoughtful wanderings led me back inside Yang's room. With only a couple hours left, I went to work.

According to the clock, it was less than an hour later when Tai poked his head in through the door. I was in the process of memorizing important landmarks around the meeting point. "Hey kiddo, I made us some sandwiches, if you wanna come get one."

"I'll be right down." I called out halfheartedly. With a sigh, I closed my scroll and left the room. Ruby wouldn't be home for another few hours, meaning that it was only Tai and myself here at home unless Qrow had come back early. I had finished most of the school work, save for part of Grimm studies and everything on Dust. I wanted to get a firmer grasp on how Dust was used and crafted before I did that section of my work, not to mention that it was a completely foreign topic. Going down the stairs two at a time, I arrived in the living room to an unfamiliar sight. Well, it was unfamiliar to Yang. The last time _I_ had seen this particular person, Cinder had shot an arrow through her chest.

Amber, snoozing softly on the sofa, practically identical to how I remembered her from the brief amount of screen time she had when she fought Cinder and her two lackeys, and again when she was murdered. Brown hair that came down to just above her shoulders, mocha colored skin, modest clothing. She was practically covered in bruises and cuts, and she looked like she had gone through the ringer a couple times. In the corner near the door was her staff, exactly how it was pictured in the show. It was in its collapsed form at the moment, measuring less than two feet across. A red gem at one end, and an identically cut white gem at the other. I'm thankful that no one was here besides Amber, or else they would have seen me freaking out. Had she been here this entire time? No, she had to have come in when I was still out back, or perhaps in my room. If she was here, then that meant that Qrow was here too. After taking a moment to compose myself, I headed into the kitchen where Tai was talking with Qrow. Half a dozen sandwiches were resting on a plate in the middle of the table. Tai had one in his hand, and the remains of one was on a plate in front of Qrow. I grabbed one up and took a huge bite. Ham, tomato, lettuce, pickles, mustard, mayonnaise. It was perfect.

"Who's that in the living room?" I asked after swallowing the first bite, feigning ignorance. Qrow glanced at me, seemingly only to acknowledge my presence, before turning back to Tai.

"That's Amber. She's a friend of Qrow's." Tai spoke with more than a little disdain. Evidently Tai knew what she was too.

"Oh, _she_ was the reason you left in such a hurry." I feigned realization as best I could. When neither of them responded, I took that as my queue to leave. I figured that they were talking important business about Amber and didn't want me hearing. Oh well. As I started up the stairs, ragged coughing drew my attention. When I turned back, the person in question was awake, and staring at me.

"Where am I?" She asked, her voice slightly hoarse from what I presumed minor dehydration.

I swallowed my nervousness and responded. "You're at the Xiao Long house, on Patch. Q- my Uncle Qrow brought you here." That was close.

"Could you tell me where the kitchen is please? I'd love a glass of water right about now." Amber cleared her throat once. I pointed to the doorway across the room where the faint din of conversation could be heard. She started to get up, but barely got halfway before she clutched her knee and collapsed backwards. I could see an angry purple bruise on the upper part of her exposed calf. I motioned for her to stay seated.

"I can get it, don't worry about getting up." I offered. Amber gave a short laugh and leaned back onto the couch.

"Thank you," Her voice had a slight soothing quality to it, even as exhausted as she was. Perhaps it was something to do with the Maidens. I entered the kitchen once more, the conversation stopping just as abruptly as it had the first time.

"Amber wanted a glass of water." They didn't reply. It took only about thirty seconds to find a suitable glass, fill it up, and return to Amber. She had not moved in the intervening time and looked like she was about to fall asleep again. I cleared my throat to gain her attention. Her reaction wasn't something that I was expecting, however. Her arm shot out, as if reaching for something, before her gaze softened. Paranoia? Human attackers? She perked up once she remembered where she was and took the glass of water from me.

"Are you going to be okay?" I asked tentatively. Amber waved me off.

"I'll be fine, I just had a rough couple of days. Qrow got the worst of it." Amber gulped down around half of the glass of water in one go, letting out a sigh of relief afterward. "Thank you, uh," She trailed off.

"Yang." I replied curtly. She nodded in acknowledgement and took another drink of her water. Hoping that that was the end of the conversation, I grabbed the rest of my sandwich and started upstairs. I took one last look at the Fall Maiden out of curiosity. The glass of water was emptied, and she had reclined back against the couch, fast asleep once more. Whatever had happened to her had done a number. I finally reached my room, which seemed further away than it had ever been and closed the door. My bed creaked as I flopped down on it, exasperated at the social ambush by the Fall Maiden. She had caught me completely off guard, and I prayed to whatever god or gods that existed on Remnant that she hadn't noticed anything odd about me.

After changing into a pair of jeans, a light-yellow top, and a steel grey pullover hoodie, I tucked Ember Celica underneath the sleeves to conceal them. I didn't want Tai knowing that I was going into a situation that required me to have my weapons. Once that was all said and done, I spent the rest of the time until I had to leave researching the area around my friend Olive's house, the area around the meeting point, and every nook and cranny in between. Olive was sixteen, and an orphan. By some obscure law in regards to Hunters in training, she was given a small house by the government and allowed to live there rent free by herself until she got into Beacon. She would be home tonight but was due to leave in the morning to Siren, another small Hunter academy in the southern part of Vale. The time that Izanami gave me was after Olive was due back from Siren, but I told her not to expect me back until late, if at all. The plan was to spend the night there chatting and 'catching up', then when she would leave to go to Siren, I would go ahead to the meeting point and scope out the area. I had around 3000Ł, or roughly the equivalent to $250. It was the sum of all the money I found in Yang's room, though she may have had more stashed somewhere.

It was time. The alarm on my scroll went off and about thirty seconds later I got a text from Olive saying that she was leaving for the docks right now. I grabbed the pack that I had loaded with spare clothes, shells for Ember Celica, and the Lien that I wouldn't need for the ferry or some form of refreshment if I was feeling puckish. I headed downstairs, noting the absence of Amber and Qrow. It was just Tai sitting on the couch watching television. I descended the stairs, Tai not noticing until I reached the last one.

"Olive just messaged me saying that she's on her way to the docks." I told him. He wordlessly got up and I followed him out the front door. A five-minute car ride later and we arrived at the docks. He pulled into a spot and put the car into park. I reached over and gave him a firm hug.

"Stay safe, Sunny. Call me if you need anything." He gave me one extra firm squeeze and handed me my backpack. The sky was gloomy and foreboding. "Love you." He called out as I was walking away.

"Love you too." With that I was on my own. Thunder crackled in the distance, giving me a start. I silently hoped that wasn't an omen as I made my way to the ferry.

The ride to Vale from Patch was short, taking far less time than I remember. Though that may have been because I was still coping with the gravity of the situation that had been thrust onto me. Olive's car was the same as her namesake; a dark brownish-green. There were only a few cars in the parking lot, most people having gone indoors to avoid the storm. The greenette waved me over. Lightning split the sky overhead followed almost immediately by the sound of thunder. It wouldn't be long before it started raining. I hopped into Olive's car and off we went.

"Long time no see," She spoke once we finally got onto a main road. "How's the homeschool life going?"

"It's boring. If I couldn't leave the house, I think I'd go crazy." I leaned back in the comfortable seat as we reached a stoplight. "How's life living by yourself?"

"Eh, it can get kind of boring sometimes. No Grimm to fight, so I have to rely on the Sim Center in the Commercial District. It's not the same." Sim Center, huh? If that was anything like it sounded, then I would definitely have to check it out. "Well, we're here." She pulled into a small parking lot off to the side of a multi-story apartment building painted in a mauve color.

The rain waited until we arrived at Olive's place, thankfully. Right as the door closed we heard the din of rain hitting the roof. I placed my pack down next to the couch and plopped down on the couch while Olive turned on the lights. Now that I could actually get a good look at the interior of her apartment, I was impressed. It was as fancy as any modern apartment back on Earth, complete with a modest yet engaging color scheme. It was a mix of deep purple colored furniture with light magenta painted walls. It worked in a way that belied words.

We spent the time left until she had to go to bed watching movies and chatting. There was even one that detailed the Faunus Rights Revolution - more specifically, the Battle at Fort Castle – from the perspective of the Faunus. I had a feeling that this particular movie was made by Faunus, or Faunus sympathizers, since it painted the human army in a bad light. I very much doubted that General Lagune ate babies. The couch was a pull out, thankfully, and Olive had an extra set of beddings stashed away. It was almost like sleeping in a bed.

My alarm woke me up at 7 AM. The rain had stopped sometime last night as the sun was shining through the window. There was a text from Olive on my scroll sent just over 45 minutes ago.

'Sorry I missed you, but I slept through my alarm and didn't have time to do anything other than get ready. There's a spare key to my apartment under the potted plant near the door so you can lock up when you leave. I won't be back until late tonight. I have a meeting with the Headmaster at Siren to start my preparations for going into Beacon next year. Hope everything goes well with that lead.'

My official story for her was that I was following up on a lead about Raven. Something I, or rather Yang, had done before and stayed at Olive's apartment, if the string of text messages taking place over nearly two years was any indication. The most recent of which was over the summer, right after school ended. I put on a change of clothes – a yellow t-shirt and a different, more black than blue colored, pair of jeans – and headed out. I slipped the spare key into my pocket and headed towards where the meeting place would be. The city of Vale was expansive, to say the least. Nearly 1,000 square miles and still growing. I opted to walk there, rather than take any form of public or private transportation. Partly so I could see the city at my own pace and partly so there wouldn't be a direct paper trail leading back to it. I glanced down at my wrists both to confirm that Ember Celica were still there and make sure that they didn't stick out too much. They could easily pass casual scrutiny, but anything further would reveal their true nature.

I had been exploring for around twenty minutes when my scroll chimed. It was a text from Ruby. More accurately it was a picture of her smiling broadly with her scythe at what looked like a work station. The words below it read 'CRESENT ROSE' in all capitals. I couldn't help but smile at her enthusiasm. 'It's spelled Crescent, but I'm glad you finally found a name for your weapon.' I replied back.

A few moments later she sent another text - 'shaddup :(' – to which I couldn't help but laugh. I put my scroll away and headed for a quaint looking restaurant that looked to be serving breakfast. It wouldn't hurt to stop for a quick meal. A sign posted on the window made me reconsider my choice. It read 'No Faunus allowed'. With a huff of disappointment, I continued on. I wandered around for a while, taking the scenic route to my end destination. Eventually, I stumbled upon a small park. It was a beautiful area, lush with trees, flowerbeds, and colorful playground equipment. A glance at my scroll told me I still had just over an hour until I had to be at Izanami's coordinates. They had said 'You'll know what to do when you get there', but that was about as nonspecific as telling someone to do something could get. Would it be a moral choice? Someone getting hurt, or robbed? Would the culprits be human or Faunus? I had no way of knowing short of asking, and I doubted that Izanami was in a talkative mood.

My stomach rumbled, and there was no way I was potentially going into a fight while hungry. There looked to be an open-air restaurant named the 'Wolf's Den' nearby. While it was indeed a Faunus run business, they weren't bigoted like the other restaurant I had passed. The food was delicious and fairly cheap, costing only around 75 Lien. I left a tip that rounded the total to an even hundred, and headed back out. Thanks to the rain, I wasn't able to get nearly as much scouting done as I wanted. Hopefully I could work it out as I went.

It was fifteen minutes from nine AM, and I had arrived at the coordinates. On one side of the road was a line of miscellaneous businesses. Clothing, jewelry, shoes, and many other vanity stores lined one side of the road. On the other was a huge apartment building that stood several stories high. All in all, it seemed like any other average neighborhood. I was pacing around, getting a feel for the area, when it happened.

"Help!" A small voice cried out. I was alert in an instant, eyes darting around looking for the source. Another, decidedly pained cry gave me a better idea of where it was coming from. I had the source narrowed down to a small alleyway between two of the fancier stores. About fifty feet down, I could see a trio of dark clothed people surrounding something.

"Hey!" I yelled out as I slowly walked over towards them. I had no idea if they were armed, or even if they had aura. I had read horror stories about new Hunters accidentally killing a criminal without aura. That was something I wanted to avoid at all costs, though the thought of standing there and doing nothing was infinitely worse. The three turned around and I got a good look at them. All adult males, heights around six feet and weighing in at what looked like 200 plus pounds. Were this happening back on Earth, I would have been screwed. Another thing I was glad for. Yang's body was a powerhouse when fueled by her semblance.

"Oh, it's just some kid. I thought for a minute we found another animal to put down." The tallest man spoke, an amused tone to his voice. Now that they had spread apart somewhat, I could barely see the small figure of a child, no more than eight or nine years old. Unmoving. Anger boiled within me and without hesitation, I flicked my wrists and deployed Ember Celica and got into a stance that I had found myself unintentionally falling into during my training. My gut told me it was Yang's fighting style.

"You have one chance." I spoke slowly, fury oozing from every word. "Leave." I cocked the shotgun part of my right gauntlet to let them know I wasn't bluffing. Which I wasn't. I was fully prepared to cripple these men here and now if it came to that. The tallest of the trio laughed sinisterly, and pulled out a short sword from his belt. The other two followed suit and took up flanking positions on either side of him. He appeared to be the leader of the group. A small burst of movement from the child behind them caught my attention for just long enough to give the ringleader an opening. He lunged forward, bringing his sword down towards my neck. Instinctively, Yang's semblance activated, and I blocked the sword with my left gauntlet. Simultaneously, I hit him with a gut punch. He stumbled backwards, but otherwise appeared unharmed. They had aura. This was both good and bad. Good, in that I didn't have to worry about killing them accidentally, and bad, in that it would be that much harder of a fight. The other two cronies weren't content to simply watch, and advanced on me at the same time. I distracted One with a shot to the face, and Two with a kick at his knees. He was forced backwards, but the ringleader had recovered by then and was swinging his sword at a frighteningly fast pace. Enough that I almost wasn't able to keep up.

"You're good kid, but I'm better." Ringleader taunted. I suddenly found my left foot unable to move. A glance down revealed that the ground had seemingly turned into a thick paste, swallowing my foot whole. I paid for my inattentiveness with a slash across my shoulder, drawing a thin line of blood. My aura had absorbed most of the blow, but it could only do so much. This was looking bad. After a moment I managed to free my foot, sacrificing my shoe in the process. That had to have been the Ringleader's semblance. At least I hoped so, because if that was something he did with Dust, then I was really in trouble. I took a moment to get my breathing under control and rein in my emotions, so Yang's semblance didn't go into overdrive. It wouldn't do me any good to run out of energy before this fight was over.

"That remains to be seen," I shot back and lunged forward. He went for another jab at my injured shoulder, so I countered his telegraphed blow. I managed to get a nice hook in on his face before he retreated and let One and Two back into the fight. Ringleader was the most skilled of the trio, that much was obvious. I wouldn't underestimate his underlings however. One swung high and Two went low. I fired a pair of shots at them, sending me backwards about ten feet. That was another thing I had practiced. Yang used her gauntlets for extra mobility in addition to weapons – a switch on the inside of the wrist guard switched between blanks and slugs. The mooks recoiled from the blanks instinctively and didn't see me coming in just as fast as I had retreated. I caught Two in the chin with a shot empowered punch, definitely feeling something crack, and sent him flying backwards. He landed in a heap, unmoving but still breathing.

One looked backwards at his friend, a hesitant look on his face. Ringleader seemed to still be reeling from my blow, so I pressed the attack. One turned around just in time to catch a haymaker to the nose. He was sent backwards and landed on Two. He rolled off of the other and clutched his bloody, broken nose. Ringleader growled at the loss of his backup, and charged me once more. His swipes were wild and unpredictable, but I still couldn't find an opening to exploit. I was forced backwards, something that I knew was bad. A moment later, I was proven right as my foot hit the still wet pool of goop that Ringleader had created. I was falling. The next moment, Ringleader was poised to stab his sword into me.

Time seemed to slow down, allowing me to take in every little detail – the crazed look in Ringleader's eyes, the individual drops of sweat pouring off of him, even the minute crack in his sword near the middle. Wait, that's it. The sword. I brought one of my gauntlets up and slammed it into the weakened part of his sword. Sure enough, it shattered. In slow motion, I saw the tiny shards of metal fly everywhere, even as his weapon was diverted off course and planted in the brick wall next to me. I primed my other gauntlet and fired a blank round, propelling me up and into point blank range with Ringleader. I shot again, this time with my other hand and not with a blank, straight into the tall man's abdomen.

He was sent backwards, landing in a heap five feet away. The hand I punched him with came away bloody. A gutshot. He clutched his stomach, practically wailing in pain. The two mooks were unconscious. I flicked the blood off my hands as quickly as I could and phoned the police. The fight was over. Between giving the police my statement, and getting patched up at the ambulance, it was over an hour later by the time I was finally free to go. A fact in itself which served to confuse me, but apparently the police could take the word of a Hunter, even one in training, as law. This was no doubt something that was exploited in some circles, but I had left nothing out when telling them my story. The surprising part was when they told me that Ringleader was Flax Briar, an ex-Hunter turned criminal after he was disgraced for his extreme views on Faunus. I asked them if they were going to phone Tai and they said they had no need to, since all the evidence was there. The paramedics matched the wound on my arm to the now shattered weapon that Ringleader was using, traces of my blood still on it. I got off completely scot free. Well, almost. The wound on my shoulder had been disinfected and covered with gauze. They told me that it wasn't very deep, but I should keep it covered regardless.

In the chaos of the fight, the child had disappeared. The paramedics and police had left around five minutes ago. I headed deeper into the alley, now wearing my reclaimed shoe from the already hardening concrete. Eventually I found the child, curled up in a ball underneath a dumpster.

"It's safe to come out now." I called out softly. "The bad guys are gone." He hesitantly began to crawl out. Now that I could get a good look at the child, correction boy, he looked mostly alright, save for a large bruise on the side of his face. One thing that stood out were his Faunus features. Horns, like a bull. The left one had the tip chipped off.

I prayed I wasn't right. "I'm Yang. What's your name?"

"Aster Taurus. My big brother was supposed to come pick me up, but he didn't show." He replied in a dazed voice.

Fuck.


	4. Chapter 4

This wasn't happening. This couldn't be happening. What the Hell had I gotten myself into?

"What's your brother's name?" I asked with as much courage as I could muster. Maybe it was some other bull Faunus family in Vale with the last name of Taurus. That could totally happen right?

"Adam," He answered as we reached the edge of the alley, causing what little hope I had that I could avoid the Beast just died.

I spoke one sentence that I never hoped I would have to say in this particular context. "Okay, well let's go find Adam then. Maybe he just got lost." I told the boy with a false bravado. Aster grasped my hand; his attitude having perked up since I saved him.

I saved him. The little brother of the leader of the Vale branch of the White Fang. It was surreal, then again everything that has gone on in my life the past few days could be considered surreal. We were headed back towards the industrial district, likely towards some White Fang hideout.

"Why were you all by yourself?" I asked after a few moments of silence.

"I was at a sleepover with one of my friends, but he had to go to school. My big brother was gonna come pick me up this morning. Guess he forgot. I know where we live so I started walking and that's when those bad guys found me." A couple people on the road gave us sidelong glances, but otherwise kept to themselves.

"Don't you go to school?" Hopefully talking to him would help get my mind off of what was to come, even if only for a little bit.

Aster shook his head in the negative. "My brother can't afford to send me to school, so one of his friends teaches me. He owns a bookshop, so lets me use the books for school. He hangs out with my brother all the time. My brother's girlfriend Blake is there most of the time too." The way he said 'girlfriend' told me that he didn't like the idea of his brother dating. As for a bookstore owner that was involved in Adam's business, my mind went to Tukson immediately. It seemed that they were good friends, if Aster wasn't exaggerating. Which makes the hit put on Tukson all the more tragic.

"Is your brother's friend close? We could go to him instead." I offered. We were still in the commercial district after all. If Tukson's store was closer than wherever Aster lived, then I could drop him off there and be on my way.

"Nope, he's on the north side of the city." Aster replied softly, evidently still not too sure that there weren't more bad men hiding nearby. Of course he was. I couldn't catch a break could I?

After another two hours of walking, we finally reached the place Aster said he lived. It was a tall, dull grey colored apartment building, a stark contrast from the one that Olive lived in. As we approached the door, I spotted an intercom alongside it. It was your stereotypical 'buzz someone who lives there to get in' type of apartment complexes.

"Which room does he live in?" I asked my charge. Aster scrunched his face in thought for a few seconds before shrugging.

"I dunno, guess I forgot." He gave me an apologetic smile.

An idea came to me. "Well, wanna see a neat trick if you ever get locked out of your place again?" I had done this many, many times when visiting Nat's place. "Watch." I pressed my palm against the speaker and gave it a hard slap. The intercom made a horrible sound, and the lock to the door clicked open. I opened the door and gave a slight bow.

"Whoa, that was cool!" He beamed. The boy grabbed my hand once more and we headed into the dingy looking building. The lobby area was the same faded tan color as the entryway. There was a taped off elevator, a staircase in the far corner that presumably led to the living area, and a short hallway with a door that had stairs going down. The room was quiet, eerily so as Aster led me to and up the stairs.

He spoke up once we got to the third floor. "We're almost there!" He exclaimed a little too loudly for my tastes, and ran ahead. I hurried to catch up with him.

"Don't run off like that." I called out and darted after him. As I turned the corner, I nearly ran headfirst into a sheep Faunus. "Sorry, excuse me." I slid past her and continued down the beige colored hallway after Aster. I eventually caught him as he opened a seemingly random door. I followed him in and-

-suddenly had a sword held to my neck. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw that it was Adam holding the sword, though strangely he didn't have his mask on, just an eye patch covering his left eye. His right eye, blue as the sky, was filled with unrestrained malice. Was Aster responsible for this? The boy in question was staring at me from across the dingy room, a sad look in his eyes. Evidently it wasn't his idea.

"No need to do anything that someone might regret," I spoke, my voice not even half as nervous as I felt. "Is this any way to treat the person who saved your brother's life?" I added sarcastically, though the way my voice wavered cut down on the bite that it should have had as the pressure spiked to the point where I could feel my aura flare up.

"Explain," His voice was cold and sharp, much like edge of his sword.

"I was looking for a place to get something to eat, and I heard him calling for help. When I got there, three men were standing over him. They mentioned something about an 'animal to put down', and I stopped them, had them arrested, and went to find Aster. He led me here." I did my best to give an abridged, believable version of what happened. After a brief moment of silence, I heard Aster speak.

"It's true," He said with a tone of voice that told me that this wasn't the first time Adam had done something like this to a guest in his apartment. "She helped me. They were really big guys." I felt Adam's eye boring into my skull once more, before the blade was withdrawn. I let out a breath I didn't realize I'd been holding.

"Leave." He turned and walked into the kitchen area.

"Aww, but I wanted to show her my comic books." Aster grumbled sadly. I had planned to figure out where Tukson's store was eventually, so I figured why not now?

"Hey, how about you tell me where I can find that book store. I've been looking for a place to get some books from." I knew that'd get his attention.

Aster jumped up excitedly. "His name is Tukson and it's called Tukson's Book Trade, 'home to every book under the sun'." He recited like a salesperson.

Aster was such a cute boy. Shame he had such a top tier bastard for a brother. I waved goodbye to him. "Thanks, Aster. I'll be sure to look him up. Take care of yourself." Before I left, I glanced towards the kitchen where Adam was shooting me a glare, though it was only half as effective as his normal glare was. My silent laments went unanswered, and I quickly exited the building. Once I had gotten back onto the road, I took a seat on the steps to the building and took a moment to rebalance my emotions. Out of curiosity, I checked my neck and was relieved that it came away clean. No unexplainable wounds to deal with.

It was just after three PM and I still had a couple hours until Olive got back from Siren. I felt safe enough to check my scroll. No messages from anyone. The whole ordeal with Adam was odd. It seemed almost too short to be what Izanami expected me to do. I expected a lot more gunfire and fighting, maybe even a convoluted plot or two. Oh well, nothing I could do about it now.

Maybe I could check out Tukson's shop? Thankfully, the nearby bus stop had downloadable maps that listed the various routes, an addon to the extremely handy maps app. It told me that I could get to Tukson's place in just under an hour, leaving me plenty of time to peruse his wares and get back to Olive's place. After waiting for about twenty minutes the first bus finally showed up. I would have to take this one halfway across the city and catch another bus that dropped me off two blocks from the book store.

I deposited a fifty Lien note into the machine and it spit out a plastic pass card that would be good for the rest of the day, banking the fact that I would likely have to take the bus back to Olive's place as well. The bus was basically empty, only a woman in the rear seat sleeping soundly. A glance at the bus driver told me that she was a regular on here. I browsed the internet aimlessly, hoping to find a lead on what the White Fang was doing. Most searches turned up assaults or robberies with the victims being Faunus and the perpetrators being human. Very little of the other way around. Curious, given that this was three years after the Fang had turned to violence. Either they were very good at covering their tracks, or they were laying low. I suspected the latter, given that the Vytal Festival was being held in Vacuo this year, home to the largest Faunus population outside of Menagerie. They likely didn't want to cause problems for them.

The bus arrived at the spot where I was supposed to get off, and I quickly made my way to the second one. As I turned the corner onto the street where the stop was, the bus was leaving. I just barely missed it. I opened my maps app to see when the next bus was coming. The next time was listed as 5:30, an hour and thirty minutes away. With a groan of frustration, I was about to shut my scroll and start hoofing it when I got a message.

It was from Ruby; she was beaming proudly while holding her prototype of Crescent Rose with an auditorium in the background. The message read ' _I won my first spar!_ ' I couldn't help but smile at her enthusiasm.

'Congrats, I knew you could do it.' Was my reply. I slipped my scroll back into my pocket and started walking. As I walked, I noticed more than a few shops with anti-Faunus signs out front. I didn't keep count, but there was well over a dozen. It took me another forty minutes to reach Tukson's bookstore, putting the time at quarter till five. Olive would be back soon. When I got close, I saw something that made my heart sink: the small sign in the window that displayed a business's hours.

' _Mon – Fri: 9AM – 4:30PM'  
'Sat: 9AM – 1PM'  
'Sun – Closed'_

I was about ready to cry. I had come all this way and wasted my money for nothing. Today sucked. Right as I turned to leave, I heard a someone call out to me.

"Hey, did you wanna come in and buy something?" Tukson was at the door. If I didn't know any better, I'd say that this was Izanami's doing.

"Thank you, I was about ready to give up." I told him with a relieved smile.

"Hey, I'm gonna be stuck here for another couple hours doin' the books anyway. Plus it's not like I've been closed for long." Tukson returned my smile and headed behind the counter. The first place I headed was the section on aura, namely on techniques and history behind it. The one that stuck out the most to me was one titled ' _Aura Manipulation: The Calm Before the Storm'_. If there was one word that could apply to Yang's semblance, it was 'storm' – be it a storm of emotions or a storm of fire. I nabbed that one, and the one next to it called ' _History of Aura_ '.

Twenty minutes later, I had nearly two dozen books picked out and finally made my way to the counter. Tukson was in the back, so I called out to him. "I'm ready to pay."

Ten seconds later Tukson emerged. "Quite a haul, huh?" He joked after scanning the lot. My total was 1730 Lien, nearly two thirds of what I had left. It was worth it, though.

"I've already missed a month of school at Signal, so I have to do my best to catch up." I told him as he handed me the hefty bag of books, tucking the receipt inside as he did.

"Good luck!" He called out as I left. I wasn't really in the mood to mess with the buses anymore, so I decided to hail a cab. Hoping that someone would get some use out of it, I placed my bus pass on the bench at the nearest stop. The cab arrived ten minutes later, and got me back to Olive's place at quarter after five. The ride halfway across Vale cost nearly 500 Lien, almost making me wish that I had taken the bus. Thankfully, there was a sign advertising a Hunter/Hunter-in-training discount that dropped the price to 350. I ascended the stairs to her second-floor apartment. She hadn't gotten home yet, so it left me free to read without interruption.

 _Aura Manipulation_ had more than a few helpful tips for aura control and methods to use it to affect the outside world, similar to what Ren did during initiation when he used a palm strike to explode a Taijitu. Obviously I wouldn't jump straight into doing stuff like that and would likely take years of practice to even approach that level of skill, but it would undoubtedly be useful against human opponents. Another technique that seemed ludicrously overpowered was the ability to directly channel aura into weapons or specific parts of our bodies to deal more damage. I could already picture exploding beowolves by using a combination of Yang's semblance and aura into one superpowered punch.

"Hey," I felt someone jostle my shoulder, drawing my attention away from the book I was reading. "I got home fifteen minutes ago, and you didn't so much as budge." She had an amused look on her face, and I felt sheepish at that revelation.

"I guess I was just really into my book," My reply was punctuated with an awkward chuckle. I placed the bookmark on the page where I was reading and closed it, only now noticing that it was nearly three-quarters of the way into a book that's over 700 pages. How long had I been reading for? I glanced at the clock and was dumbstruck. It was 9:34; four and a half hours after I returned from Tukson's. Had I really been reading for that long? I rubbed my eyes as the sudden weight of tiredness washed over me.

"How'd that lead go by the way?" Olive inquired once she exited her room, now wearing a set of flowery blue pajamas. This was something else that I had time to think about in the cab ride from the book store.

"Nowhere. The guy never showed up, so I just spent the day exploring Vale. I didn't really have a plan on where I wanted to go, but then I found a book store that had some things I needed." I gestured to the moderately tall pillar of books that rested in front of the end table.

"That's a lot of books. How much did it cost?"

"Just over 1700."

"That's a lot. I thought you were saving money for a motorcycle?" I blanched at that revelation. I guess Yang did have a reason for leaving so much money laying around.

"Yeah, I was" Thankfully, I had an already well-tested excuse that was perfect for pretty much every situation. "Then this happened," I gestured to my head. "It happened because I wasn't strong enough; wasn't fast enough. I refuse to let that happen to me again, so I need to get stronger, by any means necessary." After a solid thirty seconds of awkward silence, I spoke up. "Man, I can really kill the mood, huh?"

Unexpectedly, she practically tackled me in a hug. "It's gonna be okay, Yang." It felt oddly comforting. I wasn't exactly a touchy person on Earth, but here it seemed almost natural. Perhaps it was some vestigial instinct left over from Yang.

"Thank you," I replied meekly. Relaxing into the suddenly very comfortable couch, I drifted off to sleep.

The alarm I had set went off. I reached for my scroll, only to realize that I was still sitting on the couch with Olive; whom was fast asleep. After a bit of stretching, I finally managed to grab the offending device and silence it. A quick glance at the clock told me that it was just past 7:30 AM. Thankfully, in light of my trip to Vale, Tai had been willing to postpone my doctor's appointment until Sunday; tomorrow. I threw the scroll down on the seat next to me and reclined my head against the back of the couch. It had only been one week since I woke up on Remnant and already so much had happened. I was afraid that my brain or body was going to burn out at this rate.

With that in mind, I decided that I would take it easy today; relax and enjoy myself without worrying about Salem's sinister machinations, Cinder, or even Adam. I would take today to sit at home, watch television, and do fuck all. If anyone had a problem with that then they would just have to get over it. Olive unconsciously chose this moment to snuggle closer to me, even going so far as to wrap an arm around my midsection. I couldn't move without waking her up. Then again, I didn't really have anywhere to be today, so I could afford to sleep in.

Someone knocking on the apartment door jolted me awake. A glance downward told me that Olive had gotten up already. I stood up and stretched, a powerful yawn escaping me. I didn't hear or see her anywhere, so I figured that she had stepped out for something. Deciding to take it upon myself I answered the door. Who I saw almost made me wish that I hadn't.

Professor Ozpin, cane and all, dressed almost exactly as I remember him from the show. Given that Olive met with him yesterday, I figured that the Headmaster was here for her. "Sorry, Headmaster. Olive isn't here right now."

"I am aware of that. I sent her a message saying that I wanted to meet with her to finalize some paperwork and she said that you would be here to let me in." His tone was casual, almost amused. Reluctantly, I admitted him into the apartment.

"Make yourself at home. I was about to hop in the shower." I started towards where Olive told me the bathroom was when, not surprisingly, Ozpin stopped me.

"Before you do, I'd like to get your view on what happened yesterday in regards to the detainment of the renegade Huntsman." Of course he would know about that. Since it was a Huntsman that was arrested, renegade or no, the police probably informed him of what happened.

"I already told the police everything there is to know." I would have to choose my words carefully around him, since from what I remember he had an uncanny ability to finagle the truth out of even the slightest misstep.

Ozpin gave a hum of acknowledgement. "Fair point." He conceded and opened his scroll. Once I was certain that he didn't have anything else to say, I made my way to the shower. I turned the water on and sat down on the toilet.

What was I going to do? I didn't trust myself enough to not inadvertently say something incriminating around Ozpin and certainly didn't trust him not to go digging at the tiniest thing. I also couldn't just hide in here until he left, as much as I wanted to. I hadn't expected to have to meet him so soon. So much for taking it easy today. Tossing my shirt aside, I inspected my wound from yesterday. It was pencil thin and a little less than a foot long, going diagonally from the top of my shoulder towards the center of my chest. It had scabbed over and was itching slightly, something I could attribute to passive aura healing. The paramedic said it would be completely healed in a couple days.

The shower was blissfully hot, and I could feel the aches from yesterday's fight melting away. After a few minutes, I finished up and dressed at a leisurely pace. I heard faint conversation, so I figured that Olive was home. When I exited the bathroom, I saw Olive and Ozpin at the table, the former looking over a stack of papers that were on the table. What I didn't expect was Qrow, lurking in the corner. I had planned on making my way back to the ferry and then walking from there, but it seemed that Qrow had other ideas. I saw him take a pull from his flask. Upon noticing me enter the room, he tucked his flask away and grabbed my backpack.

"C'mon, grab the rest of your things. We're leaving." He spoke shortly. I stuffed _Aura Manipulation_ into the bag with the rest of my books and held it out for Qrow. He seemed irritated, but took it nonetheless. I tucked the rest of my clothes into the bag and said my goodbyes. Once we were out of the apartment and heading down the stairs, I breathed a sigh of relief.

"I don't know why you're here, but thank you for getting me out of there." I stated, relieved at finally being away from Ozpin. He brusquely shoved the bag of books back into my arms as we exited the building and approached his car.

"Oz told me what happened yesterday when he sent me to pick up a criminal Huntsman from the hospital. Says you put 'em there."

I placed my books in the backseat and buckled my seatbelt. Normally I'd be apprehensive having someone who'd already been drinking drive me around, but from what I'd read so far, having an aura amped up the metabolism to near superhuman levels. Besides that I'd seen Qrow and Winter fight, and he was pretty smashed then. "Yeah, him and his two buddies were beating up a kid for the 'crime of being a Faunus'" I said with as much sarcasm as I could muster.

"So?" Qrow's nonchalance made me freeze. He didn't like Faunus? There was no way! This wasn't a part of the show, how the Hell could he not like Faunus? Qrow's boisterous laughter snapped me out of my thoughts. "Oh you should see the look on your face. Priceless." He was joking with me! That arrogant bastard.

"That's not funny," I growled.

"Seems pretty funny from where I'm sittin'." He replied with a chuckle as we turned into the ramp for the ferry to Patch.

My voice like ice, I shot back "Well I'm still frazzled from meeting Ozpin, so you'll have to excuse me." He parked the car and turned to me.

"That bad, huh?" He said empathetically. "Yeah when I first met Oz he was a pretty scary guy too." That would have been during his first year of Beacon.

"He's lived for probably thousands of years, and thanks to these damn raging hormones I can barely keep my emotions in check sometimes." I bit out. Right now being a perfect example of that. "Meeting him was a jarring experience to say the least. I hadn't planned on doing so until it would have been on my terms, likely with Cinder in tow. Preferably in a body bag." Hopefully in a body bag.

Qrow took another pull from his flask. "You really hate her, don't you?"

That was an understatement. "Thanks to the tools that Salem gave her, she was pretty much single-handedly responsible for the Fall of Vale and the deaths of tens, if not hundreds of thousands of people. Having seen how large and populous Vale is, no motive in the universe is good enough to exonerate her of the blame." Even if she hadn't technically done it yet. Qrow led me to the passenger deck where the sparse few other people going to Patch were. The sky was clear, with very little cloud cover; a complete 180 from how it was when I went to Vale.

"So, back to what we were talking about earlier." Qrow spoke up suddenly. "How is it that you were able to deplete the aura of not only a fully-grown adult Huntsman, but his two friends as well?" He stared at me, his red eyes seemingly boring into me.

"I just did. As odd as it seems, I didn't really struggle against him." If he didn't already know, then I would keep the wound he gave me a secret from Qrow. No need to worry him needlessly over something that would heal up in a matter of days. "I was knocking him around with practically no problems. I had Yang's semblance active, so that played some part in it. He likely either got overconfident or he slacked off on his training after being disgraced." I didn't have much time to think about it as it was happening, but it does seem odd that I bested a fully-grown Huntsman, disgraced or no. He had training that I could only dream about right now. Qrow seemed to be lost in thought, so I reclined on one of the deck chairs and relaxed.

Qrow and I spent the rest of the two-hour ride to Patch in silence. Once we got back into his car and he pulled onto the road, I noticed that we were going in a different direction than to the Xiao Long house. "Where are we going?" I asked as he pulled onto a dirt road, clear in the opposite direction of home.

"Headmistress Garnet asked me to clear out a small force of Grimm today. I would be doing that right now, but after hearing about you taking down Flax, I wanted to see how you fought." That seemed a fair point. I didn't know if it was lingering urges from Yang, or simply my own desire to fight, but I was almost eager for this. After a good twenty minutes of driving, he pulled off the road and parked.

"Okay, we're here." He got his weapon out of the trunk and clasped it to the magnetic holster on his back. I put on Ember Celica and followed. Another ten minutes of walking and I could tell that we were getting close. There was a sudden heaviness to the air that there hadn't been prior. It was almost like the feeling I got right before a bad storm. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, though.

"This is close enough. According to the information that the Headmistress gave me the Grimm in question are right up ahead." He spoke, confirming my feeling. Did he not feel the tenseness in the air? Was it just me going crazy?

"Guess I should go greet our uninvited guests then. What am I up against?"

"Gimme your scroll first," I obliged reluctantly. Hopefully he didn't check out my conversations with Izanami. It seemed I was worrying over nothing, as he simply opened the app that was used to monitor the status of a person's aura. I guess he wanted to sync it to his, so he could see what was going on. "Okay." He handed it back to me and I tucked it into my pocket. "The main worry is a pack of beowolves led by an alpha. There was also a pair of ursa that were sighted by scouting drones. I dunno if there is or not, but there's always the possibility that there are more. So watch your back. I'll be monitoring the situation and if it seems like you're getting overwhelmed, I'll step in."

"Alright." Qrow was one of the most powerful Huntsmen on the planet, so having him watch my back was a relief. Despite the backup however, I was still a bit nervous about taking on an entire pack by myself. This was to be my first actual fight against the Grimm. I took a few calming breaths and stepped into the open. Immediately, I counted seven beowolves. Some of them were napping, some were playing, and one was chewing on a bone. They seemed almost doglike, if they didn't look like demons. I flicked my wrists to deploy Ember Celica and activated Yang's semblance. Almost simultaneously, all of the Grimm turned to look at me. The same feeling of uneasiness that creeped up on me when I fought the first beowolf was amplified tenfold. I pushed it down.

The fire of Yang's semblance was a comfort as the beowolf closest to me made its move. I grabbed its lower jaw, forcing the unholy thing shut and simultaneously sidestepping its overhead swipe. The smell of burning fur invaded my nose. Using my other hand, I landed a shotgun enhanced punch into its neck, beheading the wolf. With a cocky smile, I tossed the sublimating head of the wolf at its comrades. The biggest and most armored of the bunch let out an unearthly howl. The tenseness in the air increased, and the rest of the wolves charged.

I kicked the corpse of the wolf I had already killed into the next closest one. Already they were circling me in an attempt to corner me. The next wolf arrived a split second later, earning a backhand to the face for its trouble. A growling sound made me turn around in time to narrowly avoid another wolf that had gotten the drop on me. Okay, no more showing off. I suppressed the fiery effects of Yang's semblance, mostly to conserve aura. I had a feeling that I would need every bit of aura that I could get in the coming fight. After that brief moment of respite three more wolves charged. Quickly flicking the hidden switch in my left gauntlet, I fired a blank that propelled me towards one of the wolves. With a cry of effort, I smashed the wolf with a shotgun empowered right uppercut, utterly destroying its head. Another mobility shot from my left put me right on course for the alpha. It remained still, as if it was analyzing my movement. At the very end of my lunge, it jumped out of the way, throwing me off balance. I landed hard on my side, skidding several feet as I bled off momentum. As quickly as I could, I got up and fired a slug at a minor wolf that was making its move. It hit in its left foreleg, barely even slowing the beast down. A follow-up hit from my other hand finished it off. That left seven more wolves visible, with who knows how many still hidden or en route to the fight.

I took a calming breath and pressed on. The alpha howled again, but this time I was prepared for it. The wolf closest to me lunged at my leg, earning a hard kick as a reward for its hastiness. It retreated, opening the way for two others to come at me from either side. I ducked low and channeled my aura into my fist, drawing on one of the techniques that I read about in the book. The blow landed solidly into the midsection of the right-hand leaping wolf.

It exploded. Literally, into dozens of tiny chunks. Following through on the momentum of the punch, I lashed out at the other wolf that jumped at me. It didn't explode, but it was definitely a full head shorter than it was a second ago. Five more left, including the alpha. Evidently, it had had enough. The massive beowolf strode forward, giving a short bark to its lesser comrades. The other four wolves retreated a short distance away. I guess it wanted to fight me one on one. As I got into a battle stance, in what seemed like the blink of an eye the alpha was on me. A hard hit to my head sent me flying into a tree. My vision whited out for a split second. I blinked to clear my vision, before looking over at the big wolf. It was already rushing for me again, no doubt primed for a killing blow.

Time seemed to slow down, like it did when I was about to be run through by Flax. The alpha seemed almost frozen, despite its previously immense speed. It was almost an inversion of the first fight I had with a Grimm. Despite the alpha having lost almost all of its speed, I was moving at a pace that was only slightly slower than normal. Was this another side effect of Yang's semblance? Something else entirely? It didn't matter at the moment, so I purged all thought from my mind and focused on the wolf. I didn't know how long this would last, and I didn't want to waste it. There was a small gap in the chest armor of the wolf, around an inch wide. That was my target. I empowered my fist with aura once more and attacked. The blow landed in the exact spot I needed it to. I could see the armor splinter, small pieces flaking off. All at once, everything moved.

The alpha let out a throaty whine that, had it come from something other than a ten foot tall, pitch black, werewolf-like creature covered in bone spikes, I'd be worried for its sake. My fist had actually penetrated the alpha all the way through, to the point that I could feel its thick blood flowing down my arm. Its weak attempts to lash out at my back didn't even trigger my aura. It seemed it was unable to get a good angle of attack. I pushed the alpha off of my arm, and it landed with a lame thud, dark blood flowing profusely from the wound. Its rear legs kicked weakly; I had severed its spine with that hit. I took aim and fired a slug, catching the alpha under its chin. It stilled, and began evaporating. The other wolves had disappeared, fleeing the scene after the death of their leader. I released my control over Yang's semblance and fell to a knee, breathing heavily.

"What was that?" I heard Qrow yell out from nearby. Scroll in hand, he jumped down from a tree and hurried over to me. "Look at this." He presented his scroll. On it was a video of my fight, complete with an overlay of my aura readout. "Look, right after the alpha hit you, your aura was at 40%." The camera paused right as the wolf leapt at my downed body, the readout clearly displaying 40% like Qrow said. "Watch what happens." The feed advanced frame by frame until I saw what Qrow was talking about. My aura suddenly jumped to 100% for a split second, followed by an error message. What the fuck? My eyes were fixed to the screen, I could see the exact moment that time seemed to slow down matched up almost exactly to when the aura readout glitched. When it sped back up, the aura readout changed again, back to 100, and slowly went down from there.

"I have no idea what that was." I told him honestly. This was definitely not Yang's doing.

"Ozpin told me to gather footage on your fighting, but I really don't want to show this to him." A cold feeling entered my chest. Ozpin told him to do that? He was already that suspicious of me? I swallowed a lump and shook my head.

"That's happened to me before, when I was fighting Flax. I got knocked over and he was about to stab me. It seemed like time slowed down for me. At first I just thought it was adrenaline, or a side effect of Yang's semblance. But that says different." Part of me was scared at this revelation, but another part was excited at the possibilities. If I could learn to control this, then I would have a Hell of an advantage in fights.

"Time slowed down for you?" He repeated back to me. I nodded.

"Yeah. That time it was much more pronounced than the other. Against Flax, he was still coming at a decent pace. The alpha was practically unmoving, but I could move at about half of what I consider my normal speed." I did my best to describe what happened. The footage finished, my aura finally stopping its drop at 38%. At the impact of the punch, an almost imperceptible shockwave seemed to shake the screen. I knew I had put a lot of power into that punch, but that seemed a bit ridiculous. The feeling of unease returned, and I spotted a pair of ursa approaching. Faster than I could track, Qrow whipped out his weapon and shot both Grimm in the head, instantly killing them.

"That almost sounds like a semblance." He mused aloud, completely nonchalant about having just so easily killed two Grimm. "Given your, uh, situation, I could see how that might actually be possible." He sounded tired at the mention of how I got here.

"Speaking of that, there's something doesn't add up. I figured you'd be more upset that someone else is in your niece's body." I told him.

"I would be, but" He paused to down the remaining contents of his flask. "I was there. When the doctor declared you – her – braindead. Tai didn't want to accept it, so he had her put on life support. I had given up that day. Then a month and a half later, Tai called to tell me that she had active brain waves again. A miracle. I guess that was when you arrived. I was so happy that she had survived, but then I found your notebook." He seemed so defeated at the mention of his lost niece. Unable to help myself, I hugged him. He relaxed into the hug, seeming to have released a lot of pent up emotion with his short explanation.

"Come on, let's get you home." I half carried him in the direction of the car. I figured that he would protest, but he seemed to be perfectly content with me acting as a crutch.

"We still need to track down those other beowolves." He spoke softly.

"They don't pose nearly as much of a threat without the alpha. It'll be fine." I replied as we finally reached the car. I placed him in the passenger seat and plucked the keys from his jacket pocket. Driving Qrow's car again was relaxing. It helped me connect to something I had thought lost from my world. Such a little thing and yet it made me feel more at home on Remnant. I backtracked the road we took until I figured out how to get home. Qrow had fallen asleep in the passenger seat. I guess that finishing his flask was enough to make him pass out. A thirty-minute drive later and we arrived at the Xiao Long house. I nudged Qrow awake and got out. He wearily got out and dusted himself off. I fetched my things from the backseat and locked the doors. Qrow accepted the key and we headed inside. Tai wasn't here, he and Ruby were going to go training today and it seemed that they were not back from there yet.

"Thank you for the ride home." I told Qrow as he plopped onto the couch. He seemed to fall back asleep immediately. I was feeling drained from the fight, so I opted to head upstairs to my room. Despite the strain on my aura, I wasn't sleepy. My thoughts were running a mile a minute at the latest revelation. I had what seemed like a second semblance and aura. So far it only seemed like I could call upon it in times of crisis or imminent mortal peril. Though there was that first encounter with that individual Grimm where it triggered at the start of the fight. I had no idea how to even start to tap into this other part of my aura. I pulled my scroll out and opened Izanami's app. No new messages, but that wasn't a problem.

'Do I have two semblances and auras?' I sent, wanting definite proof. Hopefully Izanami wouldn't beat around the bush.

' _Yes._ ' Huh, looks like I was right.

'Why?'

' _Yang's consciousness was damaged beyond repair and disappeared when I put your soul into her body. I had hoped to be able to fix Yang, but I still haven't been able to find her.'_

'Why am I able to use Yang's aura and semblance so easily?'

' _I made it so you could._ ' Well that was one mystery solved. Only problem was that it opened up dozens more. What was the limit of this being's power, if any? If they could do this, then why can't they just kill Salem outright?

' _I never brought you here to kill Salem_. _Only to keep the relics from falling into her hands._ ' That was good. Incredibly difficult to comprehend just _how_ I would do that exactly, but at least I had something concrete.

'What am I supposed to do then?' These latest messages were already making my head spin.

' _For now, nothing except train. You already know when you're supposed to make your move. If I have need of anything in the meantime I'll contact you._ ' With that, the app was force closed. Evidently, they were done talking, even if I wasn't. I placed my scroll into the charging dock, laid back, and closed my eyes.

"This sucks," I muttered to no one in particular. I laid there for a while, and when I realized that I wasn't going to sleep, I reluctantly got up and went to my desk. The remainder of my school work wasn't going to do itself, after all.

Several hours and a half-read book on the properties and types of Dust later, I had finally finished with all of my school work. It was honestly simple once I had the basics down, and it was a load off my mind. I tucked the papers back into the proper place in the now thick binder and placed it in my top desk drawer. It was now nearly dinner time, and I felt much stronger and more alert than I did after the fight. It was strange, yet exciting. I would have to find a way to get control, if I even could, over this new semblance. If I could focus on that feeling I had when it triggered, then I might be able to force it like I did Yang's semblance. After ten minutes of trying however, I figured that it just wasn't going to happen right now.

One last thing that I wanted to do before I went down was make a note of the latest revelations in my journal. With that done, I rubbed my eyes and exited my room. The sun had mostly set, casting the sky in a deep orange-yellow color. Ruby was on the couch busy doing classwork.

"Hey, need any help?" I asked as I sat down next to her.

"Nope, I've just about got it." She was finishing up a paragraph of some kind. Closer scrutinization revealed that she was writing a paragraph about beowolves and their traits. A few seconds later she put her pen down and closed the workbook. She breathed a sigh of relief and leaned back into the couch. "And done." Ruby leaned into me and gave me a one-armed hug. "So how did your trip into Vale go?"

"Eh, it was pretty boring. I bought some books, but that's pretty much the only significant thing." As far as Ruby and Tai knew, I had just gone to Vale to hang out with Olive. According to Yang's journal, Tai knew that she was looking for Raven, but didn't stop her. The exact words written down were ' _I don't care what you do about her, just don't do anything illegal._ ' Personally, I couldn't care less about Yang's mother. I knew where she was approximately, and I knew her reasons for leaving, despite how flawed they may be.

"Dinner's done." Tai called out from the kitchen. It was a delicious beef stir fry that Ruby and I both had two servings of. I went to bed after that, hoping that my doctor's appointment tomorrow would go smoothly.


	5. Chapter 5

Three months. It had been three months since I discovered my semblance and still had yet to figure out how to trigger it. In contrast to that, I had managed to use it several times while fighting Grimm, and even once in a training session with Qrow. The look on his face had been priceless. My aura was something that had been comparatively simple to figure out. Comparatively meaning actually possible, but still difficult. A few times when I used Yang's aura, I noticed a cool, almost icy feeling in the same vicinity. It took a few tries, but eventually I was able to tap into that coolness, and realized that it was my aura. _My_ aura. I felt immense pride upon realizing that I had learned to control both Yang's and my aura.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, school was honestly pretty boring, social interaction aside. I had already studied all the subjects on Earth, save for history, Dust, and Grimm. The time I spent studying Yang's circle of friends proved to be more than worth it. The class that I had the most opportunity to exercise my knowledge on Yang's friends was sparring class, 90% of which was spent observing other students fighting. I didn't know if it was some passive part of my semblance, or the fact that I had gotten accustomed to how fast people were on Remnant, but I had practically no trouble keeping track of even the fastest of the fighters. After winning my first few matches handily I asked if I could observe a fourth year class, to which the combat instructor, a petite woman that was called Mrs. Bosen, agreed.

It was here that I met someone whom agreed to spar with me. Though, sparring would be stretching the definition of the word a bit. He was good, despite not having any true offensive weapon, instead opting to utilize a massive shield that was half again tall as I was.

"Again," I growled at Clay. We had been sparring together for a few weeks now, and I had made practically zero progress against him. This particular session had been going for nearly two hours, and I hadn't made a dent, both literally and figuratively, in his defense. My aura was running low, whereas his was just above three quarters. Everything hurt, but I wasn't giving up just yet.

"If you insist," He voiced reluctantly. I leapt at him with a shot empowered jump, closing a distance of fifty feet in half a second. Despite it weighting over two hundred pounds, Clay swung his shield around before I got there. I had more than enough bruises to prove that punching his shield was a bad idea, so I fired another gravity dust empowered blank and passed to the right of the shield. As I figured, he swung it around to place it between us. I grabbed onto the side of the shield and fired both gauntlets. The momentum from the gravity dust empowered rounds forcibly yanked the shield from his grasp.

"Nice job," He complimented as I got ready to charge him once more. "But ultimately for nothing." He held out his armored forearm, now glowing bright purple. It was the telltale effects of gravity dust, but what was he-

The shield I had been ready to leap at him from suddenly sped towards him of its own accord. Before I could even react, pain bloomed in my face and I was sent careening backwards. I smelled copper and sure enough when I wiped my nose, it came away bloody. A glance at the nearby display told me that my aura was at 22%, and Clay's was at 75%.

"Fuck," I mumbled as he strode over. He offered a hand, which I gratefully accepted. My ears were still ringing from his punch.

"A valiant effort, Yang." He gave a short bow, and rested his shield on the ground with a dull clang.

"It's still not good enough," I growled, clenching my fist in anger.

He frowned, clearly displeased with my negativity. "You've done more to my aura than you have in any of our previous fights, and more than most of my peers do in class." I gingerly touched my nose, and was relieved when it wasn't broken. Having that happen again would have sucked. He left his shield standing at the edge of the arena and took a seat next to me on the nearby benches. We were the only ones currently in this particular room, one of two dozen that Signal had.

"Still," I mumbled as I reclined against the wall. As I went to collapse Ember Celica, I noticed a scratch in the Dust engraving I had done the week before I went back to Signal. The books I had gotten from Tukson were ridiculously helpful, and allowed me to utilize Dust in my arsenal. I etched gravity Dust into the face of Ember Celica so that, when I channeled aura into it, could increase or decrease the mass of my weapons right before I landed a punch. If I timed it right I could make my fist as light as air to build momentum, and then heavy enough to hit something with the equivalent weight of a small car.

That amount of force had, combined with suffused aura into the punch, allowed me to literally flatten Grimm. I seriously don't know why Yang had never included Dust in her repertoire. Either she didn't see the need, or didn't feel like messing with it.

I was pulled out of my musing by the school bell, signaling that it was the end of the day. I felt, more than saw, Clay get up and retrieve his shield. I stood up as carefully as I could, hoping not to exacerbate any of my bruises or cuts. Thankfully, I could walk relatively unaided, and began heading towards the exit. I was joined momentarily by Clay, whom had stowed his shield on his back.

"In all our fights, I finally understand how it feels to be on the receiving end of a meat tenderizer." I joked. Clay snorted, which was as close to a laugh as I would get from the stoic man. As we walked, I had to brush my hair out of my eyes several times. Yang's hair grew ridiculously fast, and it was already down past my shoulders, almost to the middle of my back. It would take a year to grow my hair out that long back on Earth. The scar from the ursa was completely covered, but the long hair bothered me to the point where I was about to say 'screw it' and cut it back down to a manageable level.

"So, same time Monday?" Clay offered as he started towards the fourth year hallway.

I shot him a cheeky grin. "I'll win next time." Internally, I lamented at yet another loss against Clay. That made it zero wins and seven losses. In contrast, I had won every spar against people in my grade save for one: a girl by the name of Basil. She wielded a pair of short swords that could combine to form a polearm. Not entirely problematic in itself, but her semblance let her turn invisible. In addition, she utilized Dust in a way that only Weiss could beat.

I had ended the spars as quickly as I could, not wanting to have someone accidentally trigger my second semblance and bring up unwanted questions. Basil was a different story. She defeated me by ring out, rather than aura depletion. She turned invisible right out of the gate in our match, and I literally hadn't even seen the attack coming until it was too late. My attempts at sensing her aura, another technique that I got from both the books at school and one of Tukson's books, didn't help at all.

My scroll alerted me that my aura was dangerously low, 15%. Reluctantly, I deactivated Yang's semblance. I hate taken to keeping it on throughout the day, except on Fridays before the weekly sparring matches, in order to try to increase my aura reserves. Having it active slowly drained my aura, at a rate of about 3% every ten minutes.

I grabbed my things out of my locker and headed for home. The homework was laughably easy, and I would likely finish it within twenty minutes, which left the rest of my weekend free. My injuries would heal overnight while I slept, and I'd be fresh and ready for training tomorrow. A familiar voice called out, and I saw Ruby running over towards me.

"Hey," She greeted cheerfully.

"Hey, how'd your match go?" I asked as we turned down the path that would take us home.

Ruby giggled, pleased with herself. "I won again!" That made six victories and two losses for her.

"I'm really proud of you," I captured her in a one armed hug.

"Hey, can we talk about something?" She asked, her voice taking a serious tone. "Are you doing okay?"

"Other than feeling like I was just used as a punching bag, I'm fine. Why d'you ask?" Ruby seemed nervous, as if she was afraid to talk about something.

"Well, it's just that ever since you got back from the hospital, you seem" She paused, as if figuring out how to word it. "Different." A small frown made its way to my face at her words. I knew that something like this would come up eventually, but I never thought it'd be from Ruby.

"What do you mean?"

"You're a lot calmer, almost cold at times, especially when it comes to fights. I've seen a couple of your spars and you don't smile or laugh like you used to. You don't even get mad anymore." I observed Ruby as she spoke, noting her frown grow over time. When I started to speak, she held a hand up to silence me, wanting to continue her explanation

"Then there are good things, like you making cookies just like mom did, and that you don't treat me like I'm made of glass anymore. You seem to always know what to say when I'm sad or when I'm having trouble with something."

"I don't know what to say," I told her honestly. This was beyond anything I had expected from a thirteen year old Ruby. Despite being younger than she was in the show, she seemed considerably more mature, likely due to Yang's accident.

"I won't pretend to understand what you went through and _are_ going through, but" She hugged me tighter than she ever had before, silver eyes beaming up at me the whole time. "If you ever need to talk, I'm here." I returned her hug, smiling the whole time.

"I will Ruby."

Half an hour after the unexpectedly chat with Ruby, we made it home. Ruby tossed her backpack onto the couch and started doing her homework. I headed upstairs to my room, planning on doing the same. Once I set my bag down, I locked the door and saturated my body with the active part of my aura, almost instantly feeling the pain of today's spar melt away.

"Much better," I let out a relieved sigh as I collapsed on my bed, my aura receding as I did. It was better and more efficient than any painkiller I had ever taken. Another added benefit of channeling my aura was that it served to slowly recharge Yang's. One downside was that I hadn't figured out a way to switch my aura to use it as passive protection instead of Yang's, therefore I couldn't easily exercise it without doing activities specifically designed to use active aura as a method of training.

Having to consciously use my aura over Yang's also cut into how well I could train with it in the first place, because they seemed to fight for precedence when I did. The only time I could easily train my aura was when Yang's was nearly empty. I avoided this since I had no idea how to switch to using my aura passively instead of Yang's, or even how people would react to the sudden change, given that most advanced Hunters, namely Tai, could sense a person's aura.

Now that I was feeling considerably better, I pulled out my homework. The assignment for the weekend was to write a one page essay on the four basic types of dust and what they did. Having read several books on the topic that could be considered at Beacon-level in difficulty, it practically wrote itself. I was finished within fifteen minutes and put my notebook away.

With that out of the way, I moved on to the more pressing concern: the scratched Dust engraving on Ember Celica. The left gauntlet's array was still intact, thankfully. The right one had a massive gash that ran the length of the array.

Engraving was a misleading word. It was more akin to painting than anything. You would mix the powdered dust with an inert paste that, when it dried, wouldn't interfere with the Dust's ability to absorb aura. In addition, the paste helped diffuse aura once it was no longer actively being channeled, prolonging the life of the Dust. The most important part was the clear coat that went over top, preventing the dust from reacting to outside catalysts and triggering out of control, creating effects based on the type of Dust used. I had done an extensive amount of research into the topic and apparently still had yet to get the measurements completely on point.

Almost immediately, I saw the problem that let the array get scratched in the first place, I had used too little of the clear coat. When it dried, it was supposed to become extremely hard to the point that only certain chemicals could remove it. If it was too thin, however, it would become vulnerable to getting scratched or cracked. The main downside was that if it was put on anything aside from Dust, it did little more than act as a glossy paint. It was also damned expensive, running 2000 Lien per 8 ounce bottle.

Another twenty minutes later and I had completely repaired the array, the deep violet sheen of gravity Dust complemented the yellow of my weapon perfectly. I placed the gauntlets back in their case and set it aside, as I wouldn't need them until I went out to train tomorrow.

As I got up to head downstairs, my scroll chimed. It was a message from Tukson saying that a book that was out of stock had come in and that I could pick it up tomorrow. It was a book on the history of Faunus, as told from the point of view of a Faunus. Tukson had offered me a part time job the second time I visited where I would help take inventory and help watch the store while he tutored Aster on Saturday. Tukson didn't pay much, but I would have been more than satisfied with being paid in books, if nothing else.

I had only seen Adam once in the times I had been there since saving his little brother, and he hadn't spoken a word to me at all. I knew in my gut that I was supposed to befriend him, but I had no idea how to go about doing that if he wouldn't even acknowledge my existence. Though, maybe he didn't _have_ to. A thought occurred to me: if he wouldn't talk to me on his own, then I would make him. With that thought in mind, and a broad grin on my face, I headed down for dinner.

The next day, I went to Tukson's early in the morning. Thankfully, the ferry between Vale and Patch was running at seven AM, which let me get to Tukson's half an hour later via a monthly bus pass I had picked up. There was a bus straight from the dock at the residential district to the north area of the commercial district. The morning air was crisp, and made me eager for the day. Tukson lived in his store, so I knew that he would be there. I knocked on the door, and was surprised to see Aster pressing his face up against the glass. Did that mean that I missed Adam? The door opened.

"Yay you're here!" He cried happily, practically leaping at me for a hug. His antics had become a source of fun on the weekends.

"Hey kid, is your brother here?" I half carried him in the store, as he still had not let go of the hug.

Aster hmphed "He's in the back talking with Mr. Tukson about 'adult things'" He spoke the last two words with a mocking tone. I patted him on the shoulder consolingly.

"Don't worry, we can have fun without them." I pulled out a deck of cards that he had become attached to. "How about," I pretended to think for a moment before eventually saying "Fifty-two pickup?" I spoke with a devious grin.

He waved his arms frantically. "No, I don't like that game! It's not even a game!" He let out a huff.

"Relax, I was just teasing you. How about War?" I offered with a smile. Aster took the cards from my hand and began to deal.

Twenty minutes and two games of War later, Tukson finally emerged from the back room with Adam in tow. I figured that now would be as good of a time as any to make my move.

"Hey Adam," I started, and was promptly dismissed.

"Not interested," He headed for the door.

"That sword of yours, you know how to use it, right?" The line was baited, and all I had to do was wait for the bite.

"What are you implying?" He narrowed his eye suspiciously, and unconsciously moved his hand to where his sword would be on the left side of his hip. He bit the line, time to reel it in!

"How about a friendly spar?" I had one last thing I had to do to make absolutely sure that he accepted. "Unless," I paused for dramatic effect "You don't think you can defeat a human." Adam froze, before his glare multiplied tenfold.

"You're gonna regret that." He headed back towards the rear of the store at a brisk pace.

"Uh, what are you doing?" Tukson asked hesitantly, as if I had gone crazy. Honestly I couldn't blame him. When I first came to Remnant, the idea of fighting Adam would have had me scared shitless. Now, I couldn't keep the smile off of my face.

"The guy needs to loosen up, and he strikes me as the type to enjoy fighting."

Tukson just resignedly shook his head. "Not in my store you're not. Take it out back to the parking lot." He barked. I had grown accustomed to his store, and knew my way around pretty well. There was a huge parking lot in the rear of the complex that all other stores on this block and the next used. It was about twice as long and wide as a football field. A perfect arena if I had ever seen one. Doubly so given that practically no one was here this early in the morning.

"Let's get this over with. I have places I need to be." Adam spoke coldly as he finished attaching Blush to his waist. He took an Iaido stance and waited, evidently wanting me to make the first move. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Tukson eyeing me worriedly, and Aster standing next to him.

"Go Yang!" He cheered. Adam looked over incredulously at his little brother, and that was all the opening I needed. Firing both gauntlets backwards, I rocketed towards him. He recovered quickly, but not quickly enough to make a quickdraw. Instead, he opted to dodge. I fired another shot sideways, and launched a punch at him. Once my fist was within a few inches, I activated the gravity dust in my gauntlet. The impact sent a shockwave out, but instead of the flesh on flesh sound I had expected, it was metal on flesh. Adam had blocked it with his sheath, instead of the blade.

"Too slow," He taunted and drew Wilt. I backpedaled, blocking his rapid slashes as best I could. I funneled a small amount of aura into the gravity dust array, this time to make them lighter. The rune glowed a faint purple, and seemed to catch Adam off guard. I managed a quick jab to his face, which set him off balance. He countered by kicking out at my abdomen, forcing me back.

"Too slow," I mocked his earlier remark with a grin. He had sheathed his weapon once more and got into a ready stance. This was a lot more fun that getting beaten up by Clay all the time. Flashing him a toothy smile, I activated Yang's semblance in full. The look on his face was priceless, and his shock left him wide open to a right hook. He didn't even try to block it, and for a moment I thought I had activated my second semblance on accident.

"Wow that was a hard hit!" Aster commentated from nearby. Something seemed off about it though. Adam shakily got to his feet, and faced me once more.

"Wasn't expecting the light show." He told me honestly. "Or the sudden speed." I got the feeling he was done messing around.

"I'm just getting warmed up," I fired my gauntlets and closed in, knowing full well he intended to absorb my hit with his semblance. As soon as I saw him draw, I activated the Dust in Ember Celica, decreasing the weight dramatically and allowing me to pull the punch. My fist landed on the flat of his blade with an almost comical metallic click sound. I deactivated the array and fired a shot simultaneously, spinning me around to deliver a roundhouse kick to his torso. Given the position his sword was in he was unable to block and was sent flying to the side.

Evidently he was tired of being used as a punching bag, a feeling I knew all too well, and charged me with his sword drawn. His strikes were brutal, and fast enough that I could barely block them. I activated the arrays in my gauntlets once more to lower the weight. Even with that advantage, I was hard pressed to defend myself.

The world went gray, the telltale sign that Adam was about to unleash his semblance, and I made my move. A line of red shot out like a bullet, bearing down on me as I rushed him. The familiar tingling of my second semblance activating ran through me, and the speed of Adam's attack slowed to a crawl. Perfect. I channeled as much aura into my fist as I could, and swatted the attack aside. Thankfully, it worked like I hoped it would and sent it skyward, rather than towards any of the neighboring businesses. I fell to a knee, struggling to catch my breath. It seemed I had used more aura than I thought. Adam stared at me, a neutral look on his face. As I looked closer though, I saw the beginnings of a smile.

"No one's ever deflected that before." He spoke slowly, as if in disbelief.

"First time for everything," I told him breathlessly. Either I hadn't fully recovered from yesterday's training, or I had overdone it, as my aura was sitting at 31%. After I collapsed my weapons, I focused on my second aura. The comforting white glow enveloped my body providing a boost to Yang's aura. There was a gunshot and I glanced up just in time to see Wilt flying at me. The hilt caught me in the chest and shoved me backwards.

"We're not done yet," Adam growled menacingly, in spite of the broad, almost enlightened smile on his face. He was on me in an instant, his recovered sword swinging for my neck. I increased the mass of my gauntlets and fell heavily to the ground, the sword flying just over my head. I fired up Yang's semblance once more and lashed out at his knees. Unfortunately for me, he leapt over my attack and used a shot-assisted Iaido draw to strike at my arm. In spite of my aura's protection, it still drew a thin line of blood. I wouldn't be surprised if he was trying to kill me for deflecting his semblance. Adam was nothing, if not prideful.

I redeployed my gauntlets once more and fired two blanks directly at my opponent. He instinctively blocked, expecting them to be bullets, which gave me time to retreat away from him. The world went grey once more, and a line of red arced towards me. I couldn't dodge it, and if it hit me I was almost certainly dead, if not seriously wounded. A bolt of fear shot through me at the thought, but then I suddenly realized I knew what I had to do.

I focused as hard as I could on the feeling of my second semblance: it was an electric feeling, in about the same area that I triggered Yang's semblance from. I don't know why, but I could grasp it easily now. It didn't even feel forced, like how it did with Yang's sometimes. It felt natural.

In an instant, everything stopped. Literally stopped. Adam's attack was a couple feet from me and it stayed, frozen, in midair. When my hand got near it, I felt an intense heat. This was leaps and bounds beyond anything I had ever done before with my semblance. It almost seemed frivolous to entertain the idea, but it seemed like time had stopped. There was no way to explain it otherwise. The amount of adrenaline a person would have to have pumping through their body in order to feel like this would be lethal. Their heart would stop, possibly even explode.

I fired my weapons and sped towards Adam. The world started moving again right before I got to him. His eye widened in shock at my sudden appearance, but he couldn't move fast enough to dodge my uppercut. He was sent flying across the parking lot, skidding to a stop ten feet from where I hit him., the telltale flicker of his aura signifying that I had done significant damage to him. My scroll chimed an alert that told me my aura was dangerously low once again. I dismissed Yang's semblance again and breathed a sigh of relief.

Adam shakily got to a knee, his sword lay discarded in front of him. Next to it, was his eyepatch. I could make out, clear as day, the letters 'S.D.C.' on the flesh where the eyepatch used to cover. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. It almost looked like it was _burned_ onto his face, as if from a cattle brand. When he realized he wasn't wearing it anymore, Adam scooped up his eyepatch and ran inside, leaving Wilt laying on the ground.

"What happened?" Tukson strode over, picking up Adam's weapon along the way. I was frozen in shock. _That_ was why he was wearing the eyepatch? That must have been why he wore a mask all the time on the show. To cover up such a grievous wound. Suddenly all of Adam's hatred of the SDC seemed justified.

"I saw it," I whispered, remorseful at accidentally uncovering Adam's secret. "I- I had no idea." It made me sick that there were people on Remnant who could do that to another person.

"Now you know why he hates humans so much." Tukson said with resignation in his voice.

"How could anyone do that to someone? It's repugnant. I always knew that the SDC was bad, but" I gulped nervously. "That's just evil." Empathy overrode nervousness as I suddenly remembered a case I had taken a few years into my career. A young girl had been taken away by Child Protective Services and the father was suing them for the rights to have her back. I had the unfortunate task of being the prosecution in that ordeal. The man had burned his daughter with cigarettes repeatedly over a period of several years, eventually culminating in him branding her with the word 'whore' when he found out she had been seeing a boy from her school. She was thirteen. It was a sickening ordeal and that was one case that I was glad to lose. The man had gotten fifty years in prison for it.

"Yeah, it is." Tukson agreed. "Let's get you inside, before people start lookin' around." He helped me to my feet. That fight took a lot out of me, and I wasn't sure that I got what I originally wanted out of it, but I had finally managed to manually activate my semblance. I walked absentmindedly behind Tukson back towards his store. Adam was sat down at a table; his eyepatch lay in front of him. He appeared to be struggling to tie it back together at the point where it snapped. As I walked over, he let out a low growl of frustration.

"Let me," I spoke softly and gingerly picked up the polyester strap. Adam turned to glare at me before he saw what I was doing and his hand instinctively moving to cover his eye. Thankfully, the patch was adjustable, so I simply extended one end and tied them together with a fisherman's knot, something I had my father to thank for teaching me. I handed it back to Adam, who wordlessly accepted it.

"For what it's worth, I'm sorry that happened." I told him earnestly as I stood up to leave.

Before I exited the room, I glanced at him just in time to hear him say "you fight well, for a human." He spoke without looking back. I knew that my plan had worked, if only partially. I exited the room and headed back to Tukson.

Adam left shortly after, Aster began his schooling with Tukson, and the store opened. The brief lull in activity was a godsend. It allowed me to think about what had happened during my fight with Adam. I had finally activated my semblance on my own, and what a fucking thing it was. I had stopped time, or at least been able to perceive the world in a manner that was identical to it. Figuring out how exactly it worked, how often I could do it, and how long it could last were my top priorities. Another thing was whether or not I could manually turn it off once it was active, rather than waiting for it to run out on its own. I imagine that it would work in an identical manner to Yang's semblance. As eager as I was to try it out, I had used up a lot of aura in my spar with Adam. Given that my reserves were probably well below half, I resigned myself to sate my curiosity when my aura had recovered.

The day was droll, as there were only four customers in the five hours the store was open. Finally, one PM rolled around. My aura had recovered from the red to about half in that time. I gathered my things, including the book I had on reserve, and bid my goodbyes to Tukson and Aster. About halfway to the docks, I received a message. It was from Izanami, whom I hadn't had contact with since I asked about my semblance.

It read: ' _Turn left here and walk for three blocks.'_ Before I could send a reply, another message came. ' _Don't ask questions, just do it.'_ I was confused, and more than a little unnerved, but so far Izanami had my best interests in mind. I doubt that they would steer me wrong this far in. On my left was an alley beyond which I could see a long, open road. Following their directions, I eventually arrived at an intersection that didn't seem much different than ones that I had passed along the way.

"Okay, what now?" I murmured and reopened my scroll.

' _Start walking down the road to your right.'_ This particular road didn't seem any different than the other ones I had seen, but was quickly proven wrong.

"Get away from me!" I heard a woman yell from a few feet in front of me as she ran out from an alley, partially undressed. A man ran out after her, but what got my attention was the large box truck that was currently headed down the road towards the woman. I realized why Izanami had brought me over here: I had to the power to save her. I activated my semblance and charged. Given that I was fairly low on aura, I knew I had to hurry. Less than two seconds later, my semblance deactivated, but not before I had moved the woman to safety. The low bellow of the truck's horn ceased and I laid on the opposite side of the road from where I started. The woman was crying softly, head buried in a denim jacket that she was holding.

"It's okay, you're safe now." I whispered to her reassuringly.

"You don't understand, he's gonna kill me!" She pleaded with me. I glanced to where the man was advancing and saw him aiming a gun at us.

"Stay behind me," I ordered her, and positioned myself between the gunman and the woman.

He stopped ten feet from me, still training the gun at my head. "Get outta the way, this doesn't concern you."

With a flick of my wrists, I deployed Ember Celica, toggling the switch to slug rounds. "Considering that you're pointing a gun at me, I feel very concerned." He was too far away to reach before he could get a shot off. My aura could absorb one, maybe two bullets, but I didn't want to take the chance.

"You think you're smart?" He pulled the hammer back with a sneer.

I scoffed. "I'm smarter than you, considering that gun still has the safety on." A bluff, but one that worked more often than not. Sure enough, he took the bait and shifted the gun away to check it. I fired a shot right into the arm holding the gun. Blood exploded everywhere as the slug bit through his unprotected arm. He screamed in agony, his arm hanging off limply, only held on by tendons and muscle tissue.. I could only watch in abject terror as he collapsed to the ground, holding what little remained of his right arm, blood pooling rapidly under him. Undoubtedly he would bleed out within minutes and there was nothing that could be done. The nearest hospital was miles away.

"Oh my god Rust no!" The woman cried and rushed over to the downed man. She sobbed into the dying man's chest as he weakly tried to console her.

I sat there numbly, staring at the growing puddle of blood coming from something that I did. I was stupid. These shots were meant for Grimm, of course they would do catastrophic damage to a civilian with locked aura. The fact that he was threatening me and another civilian with a gun was no excuse. I had to get Qrow, he would know what to do. My hand shaking the whole time, I managed to get my scroll out and dial his number.

"Hello?" His voice grumbled.

"Qrow!" I cried out. "I need your help, are you in Vale?" There was a brief pause. Rust's soft pained moans felt like knives in my heart.

"I'm at Beacon, what's the problem?"

"I'm- I-" I swallowed as I glanced at the man, now hardly moving at all. "I fucked up."

"What happened?" I killed a civilian. Someone was about to die because of me.

Taking a deep calming breath "There was a man and he was threatening a woman with a gun. I intervened and shot him. He didn't have aura and now he's- he-" Tears were undoubtedly rolling down my face.

"Dead?" He asked calmly, though I figured he knew exactly what the answer was.

"He doesn't have long, and the nearest hospital is too far away. I don't know what to do." I couldn't help but stare at Rust's shredded arm, a feeling of utter powerlessness overwhelming me. I felt sick, knowing I was responsible. His breathing was getting shallower,

"Yang? Yang?" Qrow's voice insisted, but I couldn't hear him. The woman was still vainly trying to staunch the bleeding, but it was too late. He was dead. She sobbed loudly and buried her face into his chest. All I could think of is why. Why did this man have to have a gun? Why did Izanami lead me here? Why didn't I have to foresight to think about how much damage a shell designed to kill Grimm five times the size of a human would do to a civilian?

A sharp pain in my shoulder brought me out of my thoughts. I fell backwards, noticing a bullet laying next to me. My aura had taken the impact, and then broken. The next one wouldn't be stopped. My scroll went completely forgotten as I stared down my attacker. The woman was glaring at me, blood covering her hands and shakily aiming Rust's pistol. "You did this! You took my husband away from me!" She fired another shot that thankfully missed, instead it impacted the concrete a few feet behind me.

Seeing the gun fire triggered something in me. I went from paralyzed with fear to calm and collected in an instant. "Your husband got himself killed when he threatened a Huntress with a lethal weapon."

"I don't care!" She spat angrily. "You Hunters think you can get away with whatever you want! That you can kill anyone and be absolved of blame just because you went to some fancy school and you kill Grimm." Her hand was shaking as she fired off another shot, one I just barely managed to deflect with my right gauntlet. "Well no more! You're not getting aw-" She suddenly let out a weak gasp. A familiar red blade was jutting out from her chest, right through the heart. A moment later, the blade was withdrawn with the wet sound of metal on bone. She collapsed in a heap, revealing Adam. The gun clattered to the ground simultaneously with the now dead woman.

"What the Hell are you doing?" I screamed at him.

"Cleaning up your mess, it seems." He replied nonchalantly. I checked my scroll and it seemed that Qrow had hung up some time ago. Given that I had no idea where he was, it was safe to assume he had figured out my location and was on his way.

"I was perfectly capable of handling it." I shot back as Adam bent down to pick up the pistol. "My uncle is on his way here, and he would have helped me 'clean up this mess' as you so eloquently put it!" I was absolutely livid at Adam. "Why are you even here anyway? Did you follow me?"

"Actually yes, I did follow you. I was curious about the human who could match me in combat." His words were surprising. Doubly so considering that he very likely went easy on me in the spar, courtesy of the spectators.

"I don't know if you noticed, but before that last hit I was nearly spent and it didn't seem like you were even winded." If he disagreed with my summary of our fight, then he didn't show it. He stowed Blush away once more with a huff.

"You're not wrong." He admitted. "But you _were_ holding your own even when I was trying." Adam started to walk away, motioning me to follow him. I didn't, unable to feel comfortable just leaving the two bodies here. Deaths that I had both directly and indirectly caused.

"We can't just leave them." I told him firmly, to which he scoffed.

"They were trying to rob you." He spoke flatly. I blinked in confusion. Rob me? "They feign the whole 'someone wanting to kill someone else' thing and then when your attention is on one, the other clubs you in the back of your head and they rob you blind. I've seen it done dozens of times. They didn't plan on you being a Huntress, though." His voice was full of loathing, as if what they were doing was beneath him. "Someone will come along and clean them up. This isn't exactly a part of the city known for its low crime rate."

I floundered for a few moments trying to come up with any excuse not to, but his reasoning seemed sound. "I'd better call my uncle and tell him what happened." I said eventually. Upon catching Adam's wary look, I added "The abridged version. Besides he's not a very trusting individual." No way in Hell was Qrow coming anywhere near Adam, given that the former had read what I wrote about the latter. I pulled my scroll out once more and dialed Qrow's number.

"Hey, I'm on my way." He spoke breathlessly.

"No need. I managed to sort it out on my own." I told him, noting Adam searching through the pockets of the two dead people.

"What happened?"

"Turns out that the man and woman were running a con. He would distract someone while she knocked them out and they would rob the person. She confessed after she found out I was a Huntress."

"And what did the police say?"

"They told me not to worry about it. Apparently the guy had a record for doing stuff like this. He'd been in jail several times already." Guilt burned in my gut. I felt awful lying to Qrow, the only person on Remnant I could talk to, but what did one more lie matter amongst the dozens I'd already told?

He hummed in thought for a moment. "Well, if you have it handled. I'll head back to Patch to give you a lift home." I glanced over to where Adam was waiting. He made a 'hurry up' motion.

"Actually, I think I'm gonna hang out with a friend in Vale for a while." I didn't feel comfortable going back home so soon. I needed time to process what happened, even if that meant doing so with Adam.

"Oh? Do I know this friend?"

"Yeah. Blake, I met her at Tukson's." I hadn't actually met Blake yet, but Qrow knew of her. Given that she was a future member of team RWBY, I figured that he would understand my desire to get to know the cat Faunus a little better. Or at least that was what I wanted him to think.

"Alright. Call me when you need a ride." He seemed relieved. I guess my hunch was right.

"Will do." I heard him hang up and I closed my scroll. Sparing one more remorseful look at the bodies, I turned to Adam. "So, where are we heading?"

"Do you want to be near a body when someone discovers it?" He asked rhetorically. Still, the words left a bitter taste in my mouth. It pained me to leave them, but I suppose that Adam knew more about this sort of thing than I did.

"Point taken." I admitted as I walked up beside him.

Part 1 of 3


	6. Chapter 6

I still felt uncomfortable just leaving those two in the street, but Adam wasn't giving me much of a choice. My shoulder ached from where the bullet impacted, and given that my aura was already low, it was slow to alleviate the pain.

"You still haven't told me where we're headed." I remarked as we crossed a bridge heading for the industrial district. We had been walking for about half an hour now and Adam had been silent the entire time. It was beginning to irk me, but I didn't have the strength to protest.

"You've got blood on you, and there's only a few places that I know can get blood out. They're all in the industrial district and they don't ask too many questions." His words made me freeze. I frantically did a once over and discovered that the lower part of my shirt and the front of my pants were speckled with blood. Blood of the man I had killed. How had I missed that? I brushed my fingers against it to see if it could wipe off, figuring that it would be dry by now. It wasn't.

"Oh God," I slumped against the railing, staring at the red now smeared across my fingers. My eyes, wide with horror, were fixed on the blood staining my hand. All the emotions that I had managed to repress were bubbling up to the surface once more: fear, regret, shock. The miasma of feelings burned in my gut.

"Snap out of it!" Adam's voice cut through my stupor right as a slap across my face vanquished any thoughts I had. I shakily pressed a hand to my cheek, feeling the warmth created from the impact. Adam held out a handkerchief. "We're nearly there, you can cry on your own time."

"I-" I swallowed nervously. "I'm sorry." As I wiped the blood off, my scroll buzzed. At first I figured it was Qrow or Ruby, but it was another message from Izanami.

' _Steel yourself. That man would not have hesitated to kill you had he gotten the chance. You did what was necessary._ ' I noticed Adam continue walking, so I hurried to catch up.

'I realize that. It still doesn't make it hurt any less.' I sent back. It felt like a part of me had died. Hunters were expected to not only act as deterrents to Grimm, but to criminals as well and if needed, subdue them with potentially lethal force. I always knew this, but knowing and then actually doing it were two completely different things.

' _I am restoring your aura to full capacity. Be on your guard when you reach the destination that Adam has in mind. An outside danger will threaten you and him._ ' As I finished reading the message, a wave of power washed over me. The little aches that I had from today vanished, along with the pain in my shoulder. Coupled with that, the burning guilt about what I had done shrank. I still felt awful about what happened, but now it was muffled. Manageable, even. It might have been coincidence, but it seemed like another side effect of being low on aura was being more subject to negative emotions. Given that the app had force closed. I presumed that they were done talking to me. I shut my scroll and moved to walk beside Adam, a little surer in my stride.

About ten minutes later, we arrived at a rundown warehouse-type building. The paranoid part of my mind immediately jumped to the conclusion that this place belonged to the White Fang. The rational part told me that there was literally zero chance that Adam would do that.

The sight inside was overwhelming. Down a set of stairs to what appeared to be the floor of a gutted factory was covered with dozens of cots arranged in rows with scarcely enough room to walk between, let alone have a life on. At first I began to speculate if this was merely the sleeping quarters, but then I started picking out little details. Some cots had tables or small bookshelves at one end. Others had a small television or a lamp. All of them were screened off by privacy curtains, save for a few closest to the far door.

"Ilia!" Adam called out. My mind raced to recall what information I had on Ilia. She was a chameleon Faunus, loyal to Adam up until just before the attack on Haven, grew up in Atlas. It seemed that this place was more than likely just some refuge for down-on-their-luck Faunus supplied by the Fang. I scanned the room and could pick out a dozen small groups conversing in different parts of the massive room.

"Yes?" A female voice replied. I turned my gaze toward Adam and saw Ilia now standing beside him, exactly as I remember her from the show.

"Take her to the ladies area and give her a fresh outfit, then burn the clothes she's currently wearing."

"Hey, you said you'd get the blood out, not burn my stuff." I retorted. Sure, blood was hard to get out, but this was a completely different planet and I figured they had things I could only dream of back on Earth.

"Nothing gets blood out of yellow," Adam said flatly, in reference to my shirt. I reluctantly conceded his point. Granted, I probably would have thrown them out anyway as they were damaged from my spar with Adam, but that's beside the point.

"Alright," Ilia led me to a back room that was filled to the brim with assorted clothing. Dresses, skirts, shorts, pants, and pretty much every kind of shirt you could imagine. The majority of it was low quality, but there was a section in a cabinet that looked like it held formal wear.

"So uh," Ilia started.

"Yang." I supplied and grabbed a violet shirt from the rack. Thankfully there was a nearby changing area with a privacy screen.

"Yang." She repeated. "What happened?" I presumed she was talking about the blood.

The incident still left a bitter taste in my mouth, but I was beginning to accept that what I did was necessary, if a bit gruesome. "A guy was holding me at gunpoint. He died, I didn't." I hoped that my short summary would placate her.

"Ah." Was her short reply. "So, what kind of Faunus are you?" Her question had a curious tone.

She thought I was a Faunus? I guess it was understandable, considering that I'm probably the first human to have ever been here, let alone led here by Adam. "I'm not a Faunus. Adam didn't tell you?" Her sudden small gasp said everything.

Before the conversation could continue any further, the door opened and Adam's voice rang out. "We've got trouble." Thankfully by this point I was already dressed and, once I had all of my possessions transferred over to my new clothing, followed after Adam and Ilia. The three of us headed straight out the door that Adam and I arrived at. Outside we were greeted by a pair of businessmen in suits, flanked by a pair of armed guards. They appeared to be armed with relatively substandard weaponry, so they also most likely had their auras locked as well.

"You animals need to vacate the premises. This building has been condemned and is scheduled for demolition." He sounded very pleased with himself. I held out a hand to stop Adam from charging them.

"Who exactly are you?" I asked them, slipping easily back into my 'lawyer voice' as my friend Natalie had dubbed it, named so for the tone that commanded authority and respect.

"None of your business." The leader growled. I had dealt with his type before: a weak man, usually hiding behind the perceived power of his boss or his goons.

"Well, this _is_ my business. I'm a Huntress and these people are under my protection." I flicked my wrists to deploy Ember Celica for emphasis. The two bodyguards gulped nervously and took a half step back. Perfect.

The boss was much quicker to recover, however. "That may be the case, but I have a legal document," he held a small packet aloft in front of him, "from the Council stating that this property now belongs to us." Before he could retract his arm, I snatched the small packet from him. While on the surface it would look like an official document to your typical bystander, I placed it immediately as a phony. I hadn't exactly had the opportunity to see how Remnant's legal system worked, but I was almost certain that they wouldn't hand write anything except signatures on a document, unlike the one I was holding. Back on Earth, the only things that could even be accepted as official in special cases were wills and contracts. This was neither. The dumbass had even managed to misspell several of the typed words. In the eyes of your average Faunus, the presence of such a document on its own might have convinced them that the men were legitimate. Though that was more of the stigma that they were afraid they would be persecuted or worse, than having to leave.

"This is a fake." I told him flatly. "There are four people in Vale's council, but here you only have two signatures. Also, you misspelled 'construction', 'evacuate', and 'Faunus' on the first page alone." I took great pleasure in the way his eyes bugged out. Doubly so when I incinerated the false document with my semblance. "Leave, or I'll have to use force." After a few moments of growling and griping, he left quietly. I waited until they were gone before returning to the warehouse. "Amateurs," I muttered under my breath.

Cheers erupted from the doorway as a large group of Faunus applauded me. I was briefly taken aback by the suddenness of it all, but then I realized that they must have seen the whole thing. Even Ilia seemed impressed with me. Adam was less so.

"I could have handled it." He grumbled at me.

I scoffed. "I've seen what your method of 'handling it' entails, and four living humans, albeit sad excuses thereof, draws less attention than four corpses." It was right then I knew why Izanami had me come here. Those men had some purpose beyond trying to scam a decrepit warehouse from a group of Faunus. Given that they were likely criminals, they also likely ran in similar circles as Roman did, or even worked for Roman. The former was the more likely option, given that I doubted Roman would hire someone so incompetent. They were likely in competition with Roman.

I received numerous warm smiles and waves from the inhabitants of the warehouse. It occurred to me that these Faunus likely hadn't seen the darker side of the Fang, only knowing the safety and generosity that they had been given. They were probably glad that it was resolved without violence.

We finally made it through the crowd and back inside after a couple minutes of being the center of attention. "So, was there anything else you needed to talk about, Adam?"

He turned to me. "I wanted to discuss our fight." Was his answer as he plopped down onto a chair, said piece of furniture letting out a groan of protest at the sudden weight. "More specifically, what you did at the end when you seemed to teleport." I was right. He had noticed the effects of my semblance, likely due to his heritage giving him keener senses than humans.

"Ah, we-" I was saved by my scroll going off. Adam gave me a pointed look, but I checked the message anyway. "Sorry, I've been waiting for a message from my sister for a while now." Was the excuse I gave him.

It was from Izanami. ' _It is okay, you may tell him. Be discreet, though. You already know what to say._ ' Well I guess that settled the matter. I _had_ already thought of something to say when asked about the effects of my semblance over Yang's, no matter who eventually got curious or found out.

Once I had tucked my scroll back into my pocket, I continued. "Anyway, my semblance on the surface is essentially overclocking, which pumps energy into my body making me faster, stronger, and produces that fire effect you saw. Now, if I turn that energy inward, which is the best way I can describe it, I can exponentially increase my speed and reflexes to the point where what you saw can happen. I can only do so for a couple seconds at a time before the effect wears off, however, and it also heavily drains my aura."

"Demonstrate it." Was his short reply. An evil thought made its way into my head as I formulated a plan.

"Hit me." I told him. He blinked confusedly, before speaking.

"Excuse me?"

"I can't activate my semblance without a catalyst. Either via intense emotion or physical damage to my aura." All bullshit, but he didn't need to know that. If there ever came a time when Adam and I came to blows over something, I would need every advantage I could get.

He seemed hesitant, which made me internally grin. He was already starting to see me as, if not a friend, then an acquaintance. "Can your aura take it?"

"Yeah, it won't take much. It's based on my current reserves rather than a baseline to trigger, meaning the less I have the easier it is to trigger." Creating artificial limitations to my semblance to spread misinformation would be inevitably helpful when Cinder eventually showed up, if she already wasn't spying in Vale. To my surprise, instead of drawing Wilt, he opted to simply punch me in the gut. Rather hard if I might say so.

"Oof, that stung a bit." I massaged my stomach as if I was soothing a pain. "I think I can work with that." With that done, I let Yang's semblance flare out of me. Adam took a hesitant step back and I suppressed the fire. "Okay, try to hit me again." He didn't hesitate this time. I let the punch get almost to me before I triggered my semblance. The faint din of conversation through the open doorway behind Ilia ceased, and I moved to stand behind Adam. I let go of my semblance and saw Adam stumble at my disappearance. Ilia noticed before Adam, and let out a shocked gasp.

"Holy-" Adam started and retreated a couple steps. "I didn't even see you move. That's almost unreal." To enforce the act that using my semblance ate up a lot of energy, I placed a hand on the nearby desk to steady myself, delighting in the way that Adam instinctively moved forward to help me.

"I'm fine, it just takes a lot out of me to use it that way, hence why I save it for a last resort. I only really got control of it recently, so I'm still not used to how much aura it eats up." Several unruly bangs had escaped my ponytail, so I took it out and attempted to rein in Yang's mane.

"That's insane." Ilia spoke softly.

"Not really. Over short distances it's practically unbeatable, but due to the amount of aura it uses I can only do it twice, maybe three times in one fight before my reserves are too low to continue." As I fixed my hair, I noticed Adam staring at me in a strange way.

"You look a lot like someone I knew." He stated. "She was the leader of a nearby tribe back when I lived in Mistral." Okay, what the fuck, Adam knew Yang's mom? Plot twist! "Her name was-"

"Raven." I finished softly for him. He was taken aback by my response. "My mother. She abandoned me and my dad when I was a baby. I'd been looking for her up until recently, but I decided that I don't care about her, or her reasons for ditching her family." Adam seemed positively flabbergasted at this revelation. Internally, I was too. I'm sure that the real Yang would be flipping out right now if she heard this.

"Small world," Ilia joked halfheartedly.

"So it would seem." I returned her jest with a half-smile.

"You don't seem very torn up about it." Adam noted.

"A year ago, I'd have done anything for even a scrap of information on her." I told him, and technically it was the truth. Yang would have done anything for information on her mother. "Dying has a way of putting the important things into perspective."

"Dying?" Ilia asked in confusion.

I moved my bangs to display the small bit of the scar that was on my forehead. "See this?" After they had both gotten a look at it, I patted my hair back down. "It goes almost all the way to the base of my skull." I told them while tracing the scar, noting their increasingly horrified looks as I went. "An ursa did this. I was in a coma for three months, spending half of that brain dead." As I idly fiddled with my left gauntlet, I added. "Ever since I woke up, things have been crazy. A lot more so than usual. I haven't really even had the time to think about my estranged mother and where she might be." Which was technically the truth. I knew where she was and why she left, and I didn't care one bit about her and her fallacious motivations.

"Um, not that this hasn't been fun, but I really have to get going." I told them, wincing that I hadn't noticed it was already 3:30 PM.

"It was nice meeting a human that doesn't hate Faunus for a change." Ilia spoke with a genuine smile. "And thank you for what you did out there."

I nodded once in reply. "Be careful, they might come back." After exchanging scroll information with Adam, I headed out the door back onto the main floor. I noticed several stares, mostly appreciative, but there were still some that were apprehensive and even downright hateful. Given what they had likely been through, I didn't blame them. Before I could get halfway up the stairs, something struck me on the side of my head. I glanced downward and saw a golf ball sized rock. It didn't hurt, so I didn't think anything of it; just someone taking out aggression on an opportune target. I was disappointed, but wasn't really surprised that someone here was angry enough at humans to target me.

I left the rock where it was and headed out the door. As I made for the ferry that would take me to Patch, I sent a message to Qrow letting him know. Before I could get to the next block, my scroll rang.

It was Qrow. "Hey, you at the ferry yet?" Wherever he was, it sounded like the wind was blowing.

"Not yet, I will be in about five minutes." The warehouse that Adam had led me to was actually pretty close to the ferry that went to Patch.

"When you get there, don't get on. I'll meet you at the diner across the street from it."

That was weird. "Um, alright." Before I could say anything further, he hung up. I stared blankly at my scroll for a few seconds, trying to comprehend what just happened. It was obvious that he had business in Vale and wanted me to be there for it, but what exactly was a mystery. There could be a myriad of things that he wanted, most of them not good. He could have found out that I hadn't actually reported what happened to the police. He could have been much closer than I originally thought, and had seen me leaving with Adam. There was also the possibility that he had discovered the bodies before they were cleaned up and figured out that I had lied to him.

Of course I could just be overthinking this and he just wanted to speak about something school related or otherwise. Still, the cold grip that paranoia had on my heart wasn't going to be going away any time soon. It could be years, perhaps even decades before I fulfill whatever purpose Izanami brought me here for.

I purged the unwanted thoughts from my head and realized that I had walked all the way to my destination while lost in my mind. The place in question, unoriginally named 'The Diner' wasn't as busy as I had anticipated it being on a Saturday afternoon. Inside, only a handful of people were present, scattered about the eating area. My neglected stomach growled ravenously at the smell of food, reminding me that I hadn't eaten anything since my early breakfast. An aging waitress caught sight of me immediately and hurried over.

"Welcome, would you like a table or a booth?" Her slightly raspy voice spoke politely.

"Booth please." I replied automatically, having come here several times in the last few months. I was led to a red, faux-leather booth and handed a menu. I opened the holographic display that stood as a replacement for the traditional paper or plastic menus. Say what you will about Remnant, they had some fancy tech for some of the simplest things. Once I had picked out what I wanted, a grilled chicken sandwich with a side of fries and a medium iced tea, I plugged my scroll in and put my thumb on the fingerprint scanner mounted into the side of the menu. The machine chirped once and the cost of the meal was deducted from the account I had set up shortly after I started working for Tukson.

Less than ten minutes later, my food arrived. Unfortunately for me, so did Qrow. He plopped down at the seat across from me, waving at a waitress as he did. "Indigo, bring me a coffee, black, and a cheeseburger. Put it on my tab." He called out loudly, drawing the attention of at least half a dozen people. I merely rolled my eyes and bit into my sandwich. Of course he also chose now to start talking to me. "So, you made your first kill today, huh?" He asked nonchalantly, as if I had gotten my first boyfriend or something equally shallow.

As he probably expected, I choked on my meal. He kept the confident smirk up the whole time while I was coughing, up until the point where I could finally speak again. "What the fuck, Qrow?" I rasped, wiping the spittle and partially chewed food from my mouth.

"Easy, I'm just messin' with ya." He attempted to placate me.

"Do us both a favor, and don't." I hissed lowly as I plopped my sandwich back down on my plate, taking a drink of my tea in an effort to soothe my irritated throat.

"I wasn't nearly as broken up about my first as you are." He commented dryly.

If looks could kill, I'm sure Qrow would have disintegrated right then and there. "Well _I_ didn't grow up in the middle of the woods robbing and killing villages." I shot back in a low voice. Qrow raised his hands in mock surrender.

"Yeesh, the claws are out today, huh?"

"His ar-" I started, before I realized that I wasn't whispering. "His arm fucking exploded, Qrow. Exploded!" I whispered at him right before the waitress arrived with his meal. I eyed my food with disdain, the resurfaced memory of what I had done causing me to lose my appetite. Still, this place made good food and I would definitely take it home to eat later. I politely asked the waitress to put my food in a to go container.

"Okay, I get it. I won't bug you about it anymore." He finally conceded after taking a sip of his coffee.

A few moments later, the waitress returned with my food stowed away in a Styrofoam container. "Thank you."

"No problem, sugar." She said with a wink that was partially covered by her purple bangs. "Seein' him would be enough to turn _my_ appetite too." She added with a low chuckle as she walked away.

"Always a pleasure, Indigo." Qrow sighed resignedly. Turning to me, he spoke in a low voice "Hey, I _do_ understand what you're going through." At my flat look, he elaborated. "I was there after Summer made her first kill." The show never mentioned Ruby's mother much, so his words inexorably drew my curiosity.

"What happened?"

He sighed heavily, the memory of the aforementioned event obviously an emotional moment for him. "We were in our third year at Beacon, and we had a mission to clear out some Grimm in a village near the bay between Sanus and Anima. The second day we were there, some guy took too much of a liking to Summer and tried to" He paused to take a deep breath, "force himself on her. In her struggle to get free, she snapped his neck. He died instantly." He downed the remainder of his coffee. "It took her weeks to get over it, and the team that replaced us was nearly overrun by Grimm after that happened. Apparently the man was an 'upstanding citizen' of that village. They were in an uproar over what happened and wanted to punish Summer for what happened."

"That's completely ridiculous." Was my immediate reply.

"Is it?" He asked rhetorically. "I found her crying in the corner of her room, his body facedown on her bed. One of the citizens saw him and ran to tell the sheriff. We were lucky to get out of there, thanks to Ozpin's intervention."

The conversation died out for a solid minute, before I found the courage to ask "What was she like?" in a soft voice. Qrow's face adopted a sentimental smile.

"She was the nicest person I ever knew. I don't know exactly what it was, but just something about her made you feel comfortable. Safe. She had the patience of a saint." He sighed wistfully. "She was very charismatic, practically the perfect team leader. Unless you were a Grimm, she couldn't hurt a fly. It made her death all the more tragic." As if he could sense my unspoken question, he added "No, I don't know how exactly she died. She was on her way back from a mission in the southeastern part of Vacuo when her Bullhead went down. It was like she vanished, no trace of her was ever found. Damn near killed myself while looking for her. We both did, me 'n' Tai. That was ten years ago."

I was speechless. Hearing about Summer from Qrow, how bright and happy his voice was when he described her as well as the hurt as he retold the tale of her death, was enlightening. I could tell that he cared for her beyond that of a friend. "You really loved her, didn't you."

He didn't even try to deny it. "Yeah, I did, but she only ever had eyes for Tai. It didn't stop her from being my best friend though. We hung out practically every night that we weren't on a mission: laughing at cheesy jokes and puns, watching television, sparring. When Tai and Raven got together, she understood it, but it still broke her heart nonetheless. Even as Raven was pregnant with you, she still loved Tai. I think, deep down, she knew I loved her. She couldn't reciprocate those feelings, so she did her best to be a great friend for me." He took his flask out, stared at it for a moment, before grimacing and putting it away. "Ah Hell, look at me getting all nostalgic."

"Oh Qrow." I cried, tears running down my face, and embraced him in a hug. After a few awkward seconds, he returned it.

"Uh, it's alright." He gently patted my back. It took a couple moments, but I eventually realized how ridiculous I must look crying and hugging him over a sad story.

I returned to my seat, wiping my tears with the abrasive napkins that the diner had. "I'm sorry." I sniffled and discarded the napkin in the garbage can. Internally, I berated myself for the unexpected outburst. Normally I had a firm grasp on my emotions, but today's events had set me off balance.

After taking a few moments to relax and recover, I said "I finally figured out my semblance." He leaned forward expectantly. "I'm not really sure how exactly to describe it in a reasonable manner, but I'm going to do my best to show you."

Taking a deep breath, I focused on the tingling sensation that I identified as my semblance and pulled. Instantly, the din of conversation from the other diners and the distant clanking of dishes from the kitchen ceased. This was the fourth time I had used my semblance, and I still couldn't believe that it was real. After pausing for a moment to relish in the feeling, I quickly stood and plopped down in the seat beside Qrow. Just before I released my semblance, I swiped the flask from his pocket.

"What the f-" He started a moment after time started moving again. "How did you get over here?"

"My semblance." I told him plainly. I held out my right hand expectantly, his flask now resting on the dining table. "Take my hand, I want to test a theory I have." The theory being that I could actively assist other people with my semblance. It was a crazy idea that I had while walking here, and I doubted that it would even work, but I would try. After pocketing his flask once more, he gripped my hand harder than necessary.

"Don't do anything funny, ya hear?" He grumbled.

I shot him a serious look. "If this works, it will be anything but funny." I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, drawing on the power of my semblance. Instead of activating it right away, I focused on the muted hum of Qrow's aura. One of the lessons that Qrow taught me was how to sense aura. Each person had a unique sensation all their own. Qrow's was a surprisingly soft feeling, almost cotton-like, and I got the distinct impression of the color brown. Once I had the feeling of his aura firmly in my mind, I triggered my semblance. Once more, the world went silent, save for Qrow's soft breathing next to me.

"This is my semblance." I spoke softly. He looked around in awe, though before he could say anything, a sharp pain split my head. I cried out, clutching the area with my hand. It seemed that in the brief moment that I had been incapacitated, my semblance deactivated. I had held it active, stopping time for two people, for about one second.

"That was-" He started, before noticing my condition. "What's wrong?"

"I'm fine, I think I just overdid it." I told him. A drop of red suddenly appeared on the table below me. The pain had lessened, thankfully, and I groped blindly for one of the napkins before pressing it to my nose. Sure enough, it came away bloody. Okay, note to self: build up stamina before trying to use semblance on another person. My head was throbbing, and I was thankful that that was all it seemed to be doing.

" _That's_ your semblance? You-" He paused, lowering his voice. "What was that?" He whispered incredulously.

"At first, I thought it was just my semblance enhancing my perception and reflexes to the point where everything stands still, but that confirms that it's not. I should have figured that given magic and the like exist here that it wasn't." My aura was steadily relieving the pain in my head, and my nose had stopped bleeding, so I tossed the used napkin in the garbage. "The closest analogue is that I'm stopping time. The range of effect is completely unknown. For all I know it could either work in a small radius or it could literally stop time everywhere on the planet. The implications of the former are unfathomable, so it's likely the latter."

Qrow licked his lips nervously. "How long can you do it for?"

"Only for a few seconds at a time, and only a few times before my aura runs low, but think about it." I looked up at Qrow, undoubtedly an elated grin on my face. "This- this power is amazing! The best part about a semblance is that it gets stronger as you train with it, so I could potentially expand my ability to stop time to ten seconds, a minute, or even longer. There's no _limit_ to what this can do. I'd never really considered the implications of it before now, but theoretically with enough training, there isn't anyone on Remnant that could win against me, even Salem."

Qrow frowned. "You're smart enough to know that there's more to winning than just killing her."

"I know," I admitted. "But this is only the beginning." A rush of euphoria ran through me. Talking about something that was so uniquely _mine_ , and not Yang's, was satisfying.

One consequence that seemed obvious in hindsight, but I hadn't seen until recently was that my former identity was all but nonexistent to everyone except Qrow. For all intents and purposes, I _am_ Yang. It was a jarring transition that, even now, I was still having trouble adjusting to. Everything I remembered from my old life was just that, memories. More than once I had to stop from telling Ruby or Tai something that had happened in my old life. Ruby already suspected something was wrong, but that was likely more out of worry for her sister than malice towards me. Tai, on the other hand, often seemed distracted about something and no amount of subtle prodding gave me insight as to what that was. I could always talk to Qrow about it, but he more often than not ignored me aside from training.

"Hey, you listenin'?" The man in question grumbled, snapping me from my thoughts.

"No, sorry. I got lost in my thoughts again." I rubbed the bridge of my nose wearily. "What's up?"

"I asked if you wanted to head to Atlas with me for a few days. Oz wants me to check up on a lead for the Summer maiden." He spoke in a low voice. Oh right, I had forgotten that Hunter academies gave their students the last three weeks of the year off, as well as the first week of the next year.

"I don't think I'm ready for something like that, Qrow." I told him honestly. Even with all the training I had done since I came here I couldn't even _touch_ him during our spars. The one time I had finally gotten a solid hit on him was when I involuntarily triggered my semblance, something he made clear to me was a bad idea. "I still need more training, and I need to practice with my semblance."

"It's practically a walk in the park mission." He retorted, clearly irritated that I had spurned his offer.

"In the middle of winter in Atlas." I deadpanned. "And we would be searching for potentially one of the four most powerful people on the planet." I added after a moment when he didn't react to my first point.

He let out an explosive sigh. "I guess I can see your point."

When he didn't say anything further, I stood and stretched, relishing the stiffness leaving my joints. "Well if that's all you wanted to discuss, then I guess I should be heading to the ferry." I glanced at my wristwatch, which read 4:15. The next ferry left at 4:30, and the final ferry of the day left at 5:00. Before I could walk away, my scroll chimed an alert. I suppressed a groan, almost picturing the message from Izanami telling me that I should go on that mission with Qrow. Annoyance morphed to confusion when I saw that the sender was Adam.

' _Hey it's Ilia. Those guys that you sent away came back with a Hunter. Adam is out cold and Blake isn't faring much better. We need your help.'_ I glanced back at Qrow, who had seemingly forgotten my existence as he flirted with one of Indigo's younger waitresses. I grumbled at his incredulity and hurried out the door back towards the warehouse, hoping I would make it before people started dying.

Part 2 of 3


	7. Chapter 7

I ran as fast as I could, hoping that Blake could hold off the Hunter until I arrived. My and Yang's aura was at 70% and 96% respectively. Already I could hear the cacophony of their fight and I was still a few blocks away. I bullet jumped up to a nearby two-story building, hoping to get an eye on their fight as I approached. Three short hops from building to building later, I finally saw Blake. It didn't look good.

She was laying on the ground, barely moving. The hunter was a few feet from her, a flail hanging loose in his grip. I didn't see Adam or Ilia anywhere, meaning that they were probably inside. The ground around them was pockmarked with craters, some of which were too large to have come from the hunter's weapon directly. It was likely that he either used his semblance or had an alternate form to his flail.

Having seen enough, I dropped down off of the roof. When I was halfway to the ground, I planted my feet on the brick façade and kicked off, propelled by twin discharges from my gauntlets. The hunter dodged my hit and slammed the head of his flail into the small of my back, sending me rolling across the ground. I barely managed to land in a kneeling position, idly rubbing the spot where his weapon had hit me. It hadn't hurt much, and was more than likely meant to simply create distance between us.

"Wait, _you're_ the Huntress that sent my men running for the hills? You're just a kid!" The hunter said with an easy chuckle. Now that I was closer, I could see that he was about Qrow's age. He had the beginnings of a five o'clock shadow, and a scar along his right cheek going from his ear to his nose just under his eye. He had on a grey, knee length sleeveless coat and black pants, bearing numerous cuts, some of which were bleeding. It seemed that Adam and Blake put up more of a fight than I thought.

"I think that says more about your men than it does about me." I retorted.

He gave a single laugh. "So it would seem." He spared a cursory glance at Blake as she was helped by Ilia towards the warehouse. With a twirl of his flail, he started towards them.

That wasn't happening. I fired off a slug towards the hunter that he deflected with practiced ease. "Your fight with them is over. It's my turn." He paused a moment longer before turning back towards me, his flail coming to rest at his side.

"Very well." He hmphed in resignation. "If you insist on defending those terrorists, that's fine by me. You've already cost me too much money by making me come out here." Faster than I could track, he rushed me and slammed his flail into my side. On instinct alone, I grabbed the chain and pulled, following it up with a left handed punch to his gut empowered with a slug. I heard the shot crumple against his aura. He countered by grabbing my wrist and headbutting me, which loosened my grip enough for him to retreat a few paces. The whole exchange took less than half a second. I blinked a few times to clear my vision and continued my assault.

I switched to blanks and propelled myself forward. The chain of his weapon retracted into the handle, drawing the head of the flail flush. I feinted a right hook, grinning internally as he took the bait and batted away my hand with the head of his weapon. Grabbing a fistful of his hair, I slammed a knee into his gut. My satisfaction was short-lived, however, as the head of his weapon rapidly ejected and caught me square in the face. Bolts of electricity suddenly began to dance along the chain and head of his flail. In the brief moment of distraction, he whipped his flail into the side of my head, sending a shock through my system and pain blossoming all along my body. I felt the spikes on his weapon bite into my skin through my aura.

I landed heavily a few feet away, residual jolts of pain wracking my body. My vision blurred at the edges, and the hunter stepped into my field of view. "You've got skill, I'll give you that." He grumbled, an annoyingly smug grin plastered on his face. "But you can't beat experience." At this moment I wanted nothing more than to punch his face in. "Before I end your little Hunter career and go clean out that zoo back there, I wanna know somethin'." He knelt down next to me, getting uncomfortably close. "Why throw your lot in with a group of animals?" His callous dismissal of Faunus fully ignited my rage.

"They're more human than you'll ever be." I grit through my teeth. The shocks were gone, but I still had trouble moving. If I wanted to catch this asshole off guard, I had to wait until I could freely move before I struck. "All you care about is money. You don't care who you have to hurt or kill to get it." He let out a low chuckle at my words.

"Well you got one thing right at least." He retracted the head of his flail and hefted the weapon over his head. "I'm in it for the money." Right as he swung his weapon at me, I fired a pair of blanks. I winced as I felt my aura grate against the rough concrete. His weapon impacted with a huge explosion of dust and rock-turned-shrapnel. Several chunks hit me, taking even more off of my aura.

With an opening I could exploit, I tapped into the power of my semblance and rushed him. I landed a devastating hit on the side of his head with as much force as I could muster. The effects of my semblance wore off a moment later as I lost my balance and fell into the newly made crater. I pushed myself up to a kneeling position, my breath coming in heavy, ragged gasps. The hunter lay on the ground a ways away, barely moving. Good. I didn't have a prayer in matching him in a battle of attrition. Hopefully my attack had done enough to put him out of commission.

"Okay, I'll give you it to you. That was a solid hit." He called out, clutching his jaw, bloody spittle leaking from the corner of his mouth. My hopes that he was down were dashed as he rose to a standing position, clutching his flail tightly. "Whoo, that was a _really_ nice hit." He chuckled after spitting out what looked like a tooth. "It's a real shame, that it's the last one you're ever going to get." His voice suddenly turned menacing as he assumed a combat stance again.

His attack came instantly. All I could do to defend was raise my arms and hope to block it. I felt something break and I was sent flying backwards, slamming heavily into the metal wall of the warehouse. Yellow aura flickered and died, that hit broke Yang's aura rendering me defenseless. I fell into a coughing fit; the impact having knocked the wind out of me. When I moved my arm to wipe my mouth, I noticed something wrong immediately. The gauntlet that was supposed to be on my left arm was missing. In the area between where I had landed and the hunter was littered with loose shotgun shells and chunks of yellow metal, the largest of which appeared to be part of the foreguard. My gauntlet was broken? The one on my right arm was cracked in several places. Any attempt to fire it would surely result in total destruction.

"That's the nasty part about my semblance. It makes anything I touch fragile. Not so effective against Grimm plating, but against _human_ opponents with _human_ made weapons," He gestured to the remains of the left half of Ember Celica "it has boundless applications."

The horror of what his semblance could do if used on a person settled over me. "You're sick."

"Aren't we all? And uh," He let out a soft chuckle. "It's a shame about your weapon, but you won't need it where you're going." The hunter was suddenly hovering over me, poised to deliver a final blow. A cold pit settled in my stomach. Was this how I would die: being lorded over by some punk gangster with a hard on for trash talking? I'd sent men like him to death row on Earth. As his weapon started its descent, my hand brushed against something I recognized as the hilt of a sword. A plan formulated in my head instantly as I fired my remaining gauntlet.

The blank propelled me forward aided by a passive activation of my semblance. Sword in hand, my attack pierced his weakened aura, stabbing straight through his gut. Over his shoulder, I could see the tip of Wilt sticking out of his back. His weapon clanged loudly to the ground. Wilt slid easily out of him as he fell backwards, a slowly growing bloody patch forming on the ground underneath him.

I glared at his form, the only signs of life was the slow rise and fall of his chest. Gripping the hilt of Adam's weapon tightly, I moved to stand over his head. Unable to help myself, I let out a laugh. "You know, you were right." A drop of the hunter's blood fell from the tip of Wilt, landing next to the wound I had made. "We're all sick. I mean right now, I should be freaking out, screaming, or crying that I killed someone. But when I look at your face, and think about what you've done, I just can't bring myself to care."

"You know, you don't-" he let out a series of wet, bloody coughs. "You're a lot more mature than you look." He rasped, and what could barely pass for a chuckle came right after. "You- you-" With that he fell silent, either dead or unconscious, I couldn't tell which. Now that I had a moment, I could fully inspect the damage to my weapon. The left gauntlet was completely unsalvageable, I'd have to rebuild it from scratch. The right one had a massive rent down the middle where the barrel would be, and there were pockmark cracks all over it as well. It was unlikely I could repair it without completely rebuilding it like the other one, though at least this one had a general framework.

Ember Celica could wait, for now. I still had to make sure that Adam, Ilia, and Blake were okay. With every step I felt a sharp pain in my abdomen. Hopefully it was only a bruised rib and not something more severe. When I finally got inside, the warehouse was devoid of people, likely having been evacuated before the fighting started.

"Hello?" I called out, wincing at another spike of pain. Something was definitely bruised at the very least. After a few seconds of not getting an answer, I carefully made my way down the stairs. About halfway down, a particularly powerful pulse of pain in my ribs made me lose my balance. I fell face first, bracing myself with my arms instinctively. Wilt clattered to the ground in front of me. Eventually, I managed a sitting position at the lowest step, holding onto the railing with a death grip.

For the moment, I was content to simply lean against the stairs and rest. My scroll told me that Yang's aura was at 3%. Three. That was the lowest that it had ever gotten. I'd learned that your aura's ability to passively protect your body became spotty at 10%, which was why pretty much every regulated spar or tournament match stopped when someone's aura was at 25%. Thankfully, my aura was still at 60%. Which didn't really make sense since I had lost control of my semblance when fighting that hunter, but I guess I still needed to practice with it in combat situations.

I allowed my aura to spread across my body, already feeling the pain relieving effects of it. After about half a minute, I felt infinitely better, and the pain in my abdomen had all but disappeared. I stood once more and grabbed Wilt before heading further into the building. "Ilia? Blake?" I yelled out, hoping that one of them would hear. I eventually found my way back to the room that I had gotten the change of clothes from. It was there that I found Blush, and what appeared to be an opened secret passageway behind the dresser full of fancy clothes. The hall behind it wasn't lit up, likely because they didn't need a lot of light to see. The whole setup practically screamed 'secret White Fang base', but I was in too deep to stop now.

"Hello?" I called out once more, hoping that I wouldn't have to actually go down the creepy hallway. After still not getting an answer I headed down the hallway, Wilt and Blush in one hand and my scroll acting as a flashlight in the other. The further I went, the more unnerved I got. The entire hallway lacked paint, its façade a stark, concrete grey. My footsteps echoed loudly, unnerving me further. After walking for what seemed like minutes, the path split off three ways: one that went to the right, and beyond that at the end of the hall in both directions, the left path was illuminated by an unseen light. I slid my scroll closed and pocketed it, before moving forward.

As I got closer, I heard hushed whispering. I couldn't make out anything specific, but it sounded like two people talking: a man and a woman. The next thing I knew, a large form eclipsed the light from the room. They, who I now saw was a very large man, picked me up by the collar of my shirt, menacing yellow eyes glaring into mine.

"Zumeya, let her go." Blake spoke from the doorway. The hulk of a man shot me one last glare before dropping me unceremoniously. I adjusted my shirt and continued towards the door. Inside was what appeared to be a sparsely furnished bomb shelter, with a powered down TV hanging from the wall across from the couch where Adam was sitting. A partially bloodied bandage was wrapped around his exposed torso. Gone was his eyepatch, leaving his scar open to the world. Ilia was putting things away in a first aid kit, and Blake was now resting beside Adam, her head leaning on his shoulder, a similar bandage adorning her leg. The man called Zumeya, who I now recognized as the infamous White Fang Lieutenant from the train ride, was leaning against a wall on the opposite side of the room, trying to set me ablaze me with his eyes.

"I beat him." I told them plainly as I set Wilt on a nearby table. "Here's your sword back."

My remaining gauntlet chose that moment to fall apart, as the crack on the barrel finally snapped, causing it to fall to the floor and break. I could only stare, dumbstruck, as I bent down and picked up the remains of the right half of Ember Celica. A deep-seated feeling of loss flared up at the sight. Seeing such an integral part of Yang reduced to little more than scrap metal hurt.

"What happened to it?" Ilia was the first one to speak.

"It uh-" My breath hitched in my throat. "His semblance. He said it made things that he touched fragile. If you can believe it, the other gauntlet is in worse condition." I gently placed it down on the table next to Adam's weapon. "It's in a few dozen pieces outside."

Ilia frowned, before turning to rummage around in a drawer. "Here," She pulled out a navy blue duffle bag. "To carry your gauntlets in."

The gesture brought a smile to my face, "Thank you." I placed the duffel next to my gauntlet and gently placed it inside.

"What about the hunter?" asked Blake. I grimaced at the thought of what I had done. Despite it literally coming down to kill or be killed, it still felt wrong.

"He's probably dead." I replied somberly.

"'Probably'?" echoed Adam skeptically.

I tapped Wilt once. "I ran him through with your sword, in the gut. He was bleeding pretty heavily and passed out before I came down here." Adam seemed mollified by that. With a grunt of effort, he stood and grabbed a plain white shirt from the table in front of him. Blake moved to help him, but he held out a hand to stop her.

"Let's go take a look." He started for the door. "Zumeya, contact Olen and tell him to bring a clean-up crew. Ilia go give the all clear signal. Blake come with me." He clipped Blush to his waist and exited the small room. After considerably less time than it took to get here, we arrived at the secret opening that lead back to the warehouse. As we got closer to the door that lead back to the battleground, the feeling of nausea in my gut grew. As much as I wanted confirmation that he was dead, I was loathe to actually see the results of it.

I nearly jumped out of my skin when my scroll started ringing. Adam and Blake were already up the steps and heading outside, thankfully. "I'll be out in a bit." I called out to them as I checked who was calling. It was Qrow. "Hello?" I answered in what I hoped was a neutral tone.

" _Hey, the last ferry is leaving in five minutes. Where are you?_ " His tone conveyed concern.

"I'm staying at Blake's tonight. I was about to shoot Dad a text letting him know and then we were going to go somewhere for dinner." I had no plans on going home tonight, instead I would be going to a hotel and staying the night there. I didn't have the patience or energy needed to explain what happened to Tai or Ruby, the latter of whom would probably explode at what happened to Ember Celica.

" _Oh right, the terrorist._ " I cringed, hoping that Adam and Blake hadn't heard that.

"Yeah them, remember. With the super hearing?" I whisper-yelled into the phone.

" _Yeah I do."_ He was silent for a moment. _"Well, since you're not coming I guess I can go to a bar or something. Oh, by the way. You left your book and your meal at the diner. They're still open until ten tonight, so if you wanted to go grab them from Indigo you could."_ Oh crap. I had completely forgotten about my book. The book was important, but all I wanted to do was find a room by myself, curl up with some comfort food, and watch some mindless television. It seemed like today had drug on forever.

"Alright. Hey uh, we're getting ready to head out." I told him as I started up the steps that lead outside.

" _Okay. And uh, keep that conversation we had at the diner a secret, alright?"_ I blanked for a moment before remembering what we had talked about: the _first_ time I had killed someone today. A cold feeling settled in my chest at the thought.

"Alright, talk to you later." I told him half-heartedly and hung up. Once I had sent a quick text to Tai, pocketed my scroll, and opened the door, I reluctantly got my second look at the now corpse of the hunter. The puddle of blood beneath him had nearly doubled in size, the sight of it set my stomach churning. Adam was knelt next to the body, uncaring of the blood that was undoubtedly staining his pants.

"You got him right through the aorta." Adam remarked without looking at me. There was a modicum of respect in his voice, as if my attack had been something other than a desperate ploy. My eyes were transfixed on the glassy, baby blue eyes of the hunter. I had been angry, even enraged earlier in the heat of the moment, but seeing the look of pain, of helplessness in his eyes. It was sobering.

There was one thing that I had to do before I left: pick up the shattered remains of me left gauntlet. The process took a considerable amount of time, but after searching several of the craters I finally had every piece of my gauntlet. Or at least I hoped that I did. I stowed the remaining shells in a pocket separate from the remains of Ember Celica. Once that was all settled, I turned to Adam.

"Well, I think I'm gonna head out." I adjusted the strap of the duffel. "And I'm sorry I wasn't here sooner." Adam didn't answer verbally, merely giving me a single nod and then heading back inside the warehouse. Blake had done the same sometime when I was collecting the scraps of Ember Celica. I gave the contents of the bag one last dismayed look before zipping it shut.

The trip to the hotel I had picked out was thankfully boring. It was close to the industrial district, so I managed to get a fairly cheap room and settle in quickly. The duffel with my gauntlets in it rest in a cubby in the nightstand. Now that I had a moment of peace without any looming task I had to accomplish, I could finally relax.

It was over an hour after I had left the warehouse, the sun just barely having sunk below the horizon. My luck in picking hotels sucked, given that I had seemingly picked one of the few without complimentary television, leaving me with basically nothing to do. I was exhausted, but not tired. There was also no scroll charger in the room, meaning I couldn't play on my scroll until it was time to sleep.

In lieu of moping about the lack of amenities, I decided to attempt to catalog the pieces of Ember Celica that I had, not holding even the slightest bit of hope that I could place them all in their proper spots. Just looking at the shattered remains of the weapon built my frustration, and after another twenty minutes of fiddling with it, I gave up.

With a huff of annoyance, I grabbed my scroll, my hotel key, and headed out the door of my room. My stomach was rumbling, but I didn't feel like eating anything. Back on Earth, after a day like this, I'd have gone to a bar or a club and gotten wasted. Given that I was technically only fifteen on Remnant, and that the legal drinking age for Hunters was seventeen, I was unlikely to satisfy that particular vice for the foreseeable future. At least legally. A trick I picked up in my delinquent years was that if you acted like you belonged, you could get into pretty much anywhere.

Fifteen minutes later I arrived at an upscale looking club, complete with bass music that you could feel in your bones, flashing neon lights, and a surly looking bouncer. I did my best to look dead inside, only part of which was acting, and the bouncer waved me past. Inside, the place was fancily decorated yet sparsely populated: only about two dozen people in a club that looked like it could fit well over a hundred. Everything reminded me of something you'd find in the secret underground part of a dystopian future movie: basically everything save for the tables and chairs was made of glass, the music sounded like your stereotypical drum and bass song, and there were enough flashing lights to induce seizures. I headed down a short staircase into the club proper and plopped down at the bar, a deep sigh escaping my lips as the bartender walked up.

"Sheesh, you look like shit." The bartender drawled in a deep, gravelly voice. "Here," He slid a fancy looking glass of what appeared to be sangria towards me. "On the house." I eyed the bartender suspiciously, causing him to add "It's perfectly fine."

After one quick sniff, I determined that I had no way to know if it was safe or not, so I just shrugged. "Fuck it," I took a sip from the glass, surprised at the crisp flavor.

"So what happened?" Came his voice again. "You lose a fight?"

I scoffed, but I was unable to help a small grin. "No, I _won_ a fight."

The bartender let out a quick, hearty laugh. "Shit, well I hope you at least made 'em pay for it." Yeah he had paid for it alright. With his life. Wordlessly, I downed the rest of the fruity drink. The bartender gave me a sympathetic look. "Well, guess that answers my question."

I slid the glass towards him. "No offense, but I didn't exactly come here to make small talk. I came here to drink until the world fades away into a nice, multicolored blur." The alcohol sat in my gut warmly. It felt nice, but it wasn't nearly enough. "You got anything stronger, but not too expensive?" The bartender shot me a wide grin.

An hour and a half and about a thousand lien later, I had built a profound buzz. The club was way more populated now, more than twice the number of people than there had been when I walked in. Shortly after I had started drinking, I learned that this was none other than Junior's bar. The bartender that I had been talking to was Junior, and holy shit hadn't that been a surprise. He looked completely different without his beard. Though it mostly may have been the cheap animation in the early parts of RWBY that didn't do the man justice.

"Hey Junior, I think 'm gonna head out." I downed the last of my third sangria and stood. Or at least that had been the plan. What I did was hop off of the stool and immediately fall backwards towards the bar, thankfully not falling over in the process. "I'm okay," I called out instinctively. Junior was leaning against the bar, a stoic look on his face.

"You ain't gettin' home by yourself in that condition." Junior noted.

I rolled my eyes and said "What, offering to take me to bed?" while shooting him a cheeky smirk.

He just sighed heavily and waved a hand dismissively. "Melanie, see that she makes it to her place in one piece." I glanced behind me to see the green twin, wearing a less revealing version of the outfit she had on in the Yellow trailer, giving Junior a flat look.

Turning back to Junior, I leaned on the bar. Partly because I wanted to look cool, but mostly because my sense of balance was off right now. "You know, you're doing an awful lot for me despite us having just met."

Junior shrugged. "I pride myself on being a good judge of character. I can tell that you're someone I need to keep an eye on, both for your sake _and_ mine." After that he disappeared through a door behind the bar, leaving me alone with Melanie. Relatively speaking, of course, as there was still a multitude of people doing their own thing in various areas of the club. He did have a point though, after all it was Yang that trashed his club in the Yellow trailer.

"So uh, let's-" I was cut off by Melanie grabbing my wrist and dragging me towards the door of the club. "Okay, I guess that this is happening now." I added as she pulled me up the stairs that lead outside.

"Where are we going?" She asked in an angry tone. Okay, definitely not friendly. I pulled away from her and rubbed my sore wrist. Oh right, I guess that my aura would still be pretty low from today.

"Follow me!" I called back as I walked with as balanced of a gait as I could manage. Less than five steps later, I tripped and nearly fell flat on my face. Thankfully there was a street sign right next to me that I managed to grab onto. "Okay, maybe I do need some help." I admitted softly.

Melanie let out an exasperated sigh. "Just tell me where you're staying at." She definitely sounded less angry, so that was progress.

"'m sorry. I don't mean to be difficult. 's just that today _sucked_ and I wanted to get shit-faced." I told her as I stood up. "It's the hotel a few blocks away. With the big picture of the star." It seemed like a really nice hotel, if a bit lacking in amenities.

"I know where that is. Come on." She grabbed my hand and guided me down the sidewalk. I felt a little embarrassed that I had to be led down the street like a child. With Melanie leading the way, I reached the hotel in no time at all.

As I stood outside the door to the room I had rented, I found myself unable to enter. That doing so would bring reality crashing down on my head. I reached for the card reader with a shaky hand. The closer I got, the harder I had to push myself. It seemed that my reluctance had drawn Melanie's ire.

"What's the matter with you? You don't know how to use your card?" She spat sarcastically and snatched the card from my hand. Less than a second later, the door to my room clicked open, revealing the duffel that I had been digging through shortly before I left. A forlorn sigh left my lips as I slowly strode towards the mess. Before I got even halfway, I was nearly bowled over by a bout of nausea. Bile rose in my throat as I made a beeline for the toilet. Seconds later, the contents of my stomach were being ejected in a terrible rainbow. In the brief interlude between when I was vomiting, sobs wracked my body, all of the thoughts and emotions that I had repressed being let out at once.

I understood that there probably wasn't a semblance on Remnant that could match the power of mine. It would be so easy to use it to solve every problem, and that's what I had been afraid of. Afraid that I would grow too accustomed to using it, that I would be useless without it. I had tried to match that hunter on skill alone, not realizing just how big the gap in power was between us. That fear had forced me into situations that ended with me having to kill two people today.

After what seemed like hours, my stomach had been thoroughly emptied, and my vision had been reduced to a tear-stained blur. I honestly didn't know if Melanie had stayed or gone, and didn't really care either way. All I planned on doing was clearing off the bed and laying down for a week. After finally mustering the energy to stand, I moved towards the sink to wash the nasty taste out of my mouth. It was here that I got my first look at myself after today.

Junior had been right about one thing, I looked like shit. The blood that had come from a wound on the side of my head had dried, leaving an ugly red mark along the right side of my face. Dirt covered pretty much everything that the blood didn't. Had I really gone into Junior's looking like this? My face wasn't even the worst part. My shirt, while dirtied and torn in a couple places, was mostly intact. There was a large, still tender, bruise on my back. Thankfully, it didn't seem like anything other than a bruise.

I used a washcloth to clean my face as best I could. After that, I could see that the wound on my head had already scabbed over, thanks to my aura. I gently dabbed a clean part of the cloth directly on the scabs, wincing at how tender the area still was. Once the wash cloth was mostly cleaned and wrung out, I exited the bathroom.

"It's about time. You've been in there for twenty minutes." Melanie deadpanned from the couch that lone luxury chair in the room. I swallowed nervously. There was no way that she hadn't heard everything.

"I didn't expect you to still be here." I told her as I began to pack away the mess on my bed.

"What's that?" Melanie asked, completely ignoring my remark.

I stared at the largest piece that remained of my left gauntlet. "It's-" I breathed a dejected sigh. " _Was,_ my weapon. A pair of shotgun gauntlets named Ember Celica. I fought some guy today and his semblance destroyed them." I tossed the hunk of metal into my duffel with the rest of it and placed the bag back in its spot. "Today has just been a _complete_ mess."

Melanie fixed me with an inquisitive look. "Is that why you were wailing like a banshee in there?" My face burned red with embarrassment.

"Partly." The bed creaked as I sat down. "I don't really feel like talking about it." Melanie's pointed look told me that she wasn't going to leave without an explanation. I sat in silent thought for a moment, until that was interrupted by my rumbling stomach. From hunger instead of nausea this time. "How about I tell you over dinner?" Standing up proved to be a challenge as I still felt more than a little tipsy from the alcohol. Despite being seemingly reluctant to do so, Melanie acted as a crutch for me.

"You smell awful." Melanie deadpanned as we went down the stairs to the first floor.

"This is my second change of clothes today." I told her. "The first had blood on them, not from me."

Melanie's mask briefly broke, conveying undisguised interest, before reforming into a dull, almost bored look. "So, where did you have in mind for dinner?" She asked in an almost monotone voice.

"I don't really know much about the area, what would you recommend?" I asked as she readjusted her grip, moving her arm from gripping mine to around the small of my back. It seemed that Melanie noticed my inquisitive look.

"It's the easiest way to keep you from falling on your ass." She huffed indignantly, before adding "There's a good seafood place called 'Golden Chef' about a block from here." On the walk there, I tried several times to walk on my own without support, but every time I nearly fell over. Now thoroughly embarrassed, I resigned myself to using Melanie as a crutch. Not that I was really complaining. She smelled nice.

Ten minutes later, we reached the restaurant. It's logo was, appropriately, a golden frying pan. Inside, the atmosphere was what could be considered upper middle class. Not really extravagant, but without a bit of spending money you likely wouldn't go there. We seated at a table near the corner, and a waiter approached us almost immediately.

"The usual, miss?" He asked Melanie. Usual? She must come here often.

"Yes, Merle." She replied with a short smile, not even bothering to look at or hand me a menu. The waiter then turned to me, giving me a disdainful once over in the process.

"And for you miss?" He asked with faux politeness.

I floundered for a brief moment, something that the man took notice of, before saying "the same as her." He nodded once and walked back towards the kitchen area. "This doesn't exactly look cheap." I noted as I looked at the menu, wincing at the prices, most of which cost in the upwards of 300-700 lien. I had about 1500 left in my account, and I hoped that I hadn't just condemned my wallet to death.

"Relax, _I'm_ paying for it. I have credit here." She waved her hand dismissively.

I frowned. "Are you sure?" Despite being almost broke, the idea of not paying for my own food didn't sit well with me.

"It's fine." Melanie insisted. "I come here all the time. We could probably eat for free if I wanted." She cleared her throat and leaned forward on the table. "So, _now_ will you tell me?" Her vivid green eyes seemed to bore into me. Before either of us could say anything further, the waiter came back with two glasses of ice water and a pitcher for refills. After downing more than half the glass, I figured that there was no putting it off any further.

The way I had it figured was that Melanie had been ordered to gather information on me for Junior. It seemed the only plausible reason for someone of Junior's nature to do so. Especially given the paying for dinner part, which I doubt she did out of the goodness of her heart. Giving them some information now might buy me favor for later on when I started searching for Roman and Neo.

So I told her, save for stuff that I felt that she didn't need to know, basically what had happened today. I omitted everything involving Adam: him killing the woman, replacing Adam's sword with a long shard of metal, and leaving out everything that happened after I killed that hunter. It took about twenty minutes during which our food, which was an amazing salmon filet and a side of steamed vegetables, arrived about halfway through. Melanie seemed a lot less nonplussed than I figured someone would be considering exactly _what_ I was telling her.

"So yeah," I said after finishing my third glass of water. "Today sucked."

"I don't really see how you could have done anything different." Melanie commented. "He was trying to kill you after all." A point that I hadn't missed.

"Yeah, but I just can't help but feel that I could have done something different. Something more." I rubbed my temples in a vain attempt to soothe my slowly building headache. It had been just over an hour since I left the club and, between the fresh air, the food, and the half pitcher of water I had drank, the effects of the alcohol were starting to wear off. "Sorry, I just-" I let out a sigh. "I'm just not used to this kind of stuff." We sat in silence for a moment more, before I added. "Do you wanna get outta here?" Thankfully, she agreed.

Now that I was able to walk without assistance, we made the trip back in a couple minutes. I stopped at the doorway that led to my rented room. "Um," I swallowed nervously. "I know that I probably annoyed you a lot, and uh-" I stopped, almost uncertain of what to say. "What I'm trying to say is thank you. For putting up with me while I- " Any further conversation was cut off when Melanie kissed me, full on. My brain blanked as it tried to process what was happening. A moment later she pulled away, hand still cupping my chin.

"You're cute when you're flustered." She commented with a small smile, turned towards the hall, and walked away. By the time I composed myself, she was gone. _What the fuck?_ I took a couple steps back and slammed the door of my room shut. I felt completely blindsided by this. Had I missed some sort of cue from her during our outing? It all seemed fairly standard, aside from the snooty waiter. I could practically _feel_ my brain oozing out of my ears as I tried to comprehend what just happened.

"I'm too fucking tired to deal with this." I sighed exasperatedly and kicked off my shoes. Before I went to sleep I felt that a shower was in order. As I entered the bathroom and started the water for my shower, I finally noticed just how filthy I was. Several, irreparable slash marks cut lines across my shirt, exposing the skin beneath. Blood stains were speckled _everywhere_ , though the way they contrasted with the shirt made it look like by design, rather than murder. The tan colored slacks were, thankfully, mostly blood free save for a couple splotches that were in an area covered by my shirt.

I practically melted once I stepped into the water as it, both literally and metaphorically, washed away my troubles. Parts of the water turned crimson as the dried blood was pressure washed away. What didn't come off I managed to removed with a loofa that was hanging from the shower head. It took three small bottles of shampoo and conditioner before I felt my hair was clean enough. The last five minutes of my shower were spent basking in the flow at the hottest possible setting. Once that was over, I dried off, put my underwear back on, and collapsed into the bed. My scroll was resting on the nightstand, no notifications from anyone.

As soon as I got comfortable underneath the covers, it seemed like the weight of everything I had done today came crashing down. I was asleep within moments.


	8. Chapter 8

_A vaguely humanoid figure stood over me. I say vaguely because it seemed as if they were made of shadow, in stark contrast to the white that went on forever in all directions._

" _You are awake." The figure spoke with a voice that wasn't quite male, and wasn't quite female. It had an almost imperceptible echo to it as well . Given the situation, I could only think of one possible thing that could have happened to me._

" _Am," I paused for a moment to take in the vast, empty, white void surrounding myself and the shadowy figure. "Am I dead?" The figure's blank grey eyes fixed on me._

" _Unfortunately." It spoke. So I was dead. That didn't bother me nearly as much as it should have. It seemed that whatever had killed me left gaps in my memory because I couldn't remember what I had been doing before._

" _Why am I dead?" I asked suddenly. The figure hovered slightly closer to me, putting me on edge._

" _You were shot" It said plainly. "Three times in the chest, while defending your friend Natalie from an mugger. The paramedics could not save you." It placed a consoling hand on my shoulder, the touch sending a chill through my body. My emotions threatened to go into overdrive at the thought of anything happening to her. She is- was practically my only friend. I had known her since elementary school for fucks sake! I looked down at myself and saw I was wearing my business suit, three bloody holes right over where my heart was. When I pressed my hand against them, however, the skin underneath was intact._

" _Is she okay?" My voice sounded small._

" _She is safe, albeit broken up over your death." The figure moved away and seemed to stare into the distance. "I will not lie to you. Despite your death being untimely on your world, it has come as a great boon to mine." They let out an almost imperceptible sigh. "There are events unfolding that are not within the scope of my plan. A great evil threatens to overwhelm humanity, and I am unable to stop it." It turned to face me. "Someone important there has died. Though her body is still alive, she is what you call 'brain dead'. A living breathing body, without a mind to drive it." I connected the dots almost immediately._

" _You want me to go there, and take her place?" I asked, even though I already knew the answer._

" _Yes." The figure hovered almost face to face with me. "It will not be easy. Far from it, in fact. You will face danger and even death at nearly every step of the way." They sighed again, this time much more audibly. "If you choose to decline, then your fate would be out of my control. Should you accept, then I will send you there."_

" _If I accept, then what do I call you?" Despite not having a face, I could tell that the figure smiled at my words. As if they already knew my answer._

" _My name is Izanami."_

When I awoke, I felt infinitely better than I had last night. Though my dream, or I guess memory, had cast my role on this in an entirely new light. Apparently I had made the choice to come here, rather than it being due to random circumstance. As if I had enough to worry about without adding an existential crisis to the mix. On the bright side, I guess I finally knew how I died. A quick glance at the wall clock told me that it was quarter past seven. I grabbed my scroll and dialed Qrow, not giving a damn if he was awake or not.

Three rings later, and a groggy voice answered. Though it definitely wasn't Qrow's. "Hello?" came a woman's voice. I just rolled my eyes.

"Is Qrow there?" I asked tentatively. Of course the one time I need him, he's shacked up with someone.

"Yeah, hold on." There was a couple of seconds of silence, before a loud smack came through the microphone. After that, some muffled conversation, until finally Qrow answered.

"What's wrong?"

I just sighed. "Where to begin? Can you come to my hotel room? I wanna talk about something. A lot of somethings." I added that last bit mostly to myself.

"I thought you were staying with your friend Blake?" He raised a good point. That _was_ what I had told him what was happening.

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about." I replied.

"What time is-" He paused no doubt looking at the clock. "Holy shit. Why'd you have to call me so early?" I knew this was coming. Qrow definitely wasn't an early bird. Heh, early bird.

"It's important, I promise you." I told him. For about ten seconds, all I heard was muffled conversation, no doubt he was informing his lady friend about what I had asked of him.

I heard a door slam. It seemed that his friend didn't take it that well. "Fine, message me the address and I'll be there in twenty minutes." He spoke in an exasperated tone.

"Thank you." With that out of the way, I ended the call and messaged him the address. My scroll went back onto its resting place next to the bed. After making sure that there was a robe I could wear, I tossed my clothes, underwear included, into a sink full of soapy water. The bright pink cotton robe was short, almost too short, but it would do. I swirled the concoction around a few times before letting it sit.

I spent my remaining time until Qrow got here figuring out what to tell him and what to leave out. Ember Celica was something that, as much as I wanted to handle myself, Qrow needed to know. Unfortunately, telling Qrow about Ember Celica also meant that by extension I had to tell him about the hunter I killed as well. I could already feel the headache coming on from that particular conversation.

The part with Melanie, which even _I_ was still confused about, was a hundred percent being omitted. In my time so far on Remnant, romance had been one of the _last_ things on my mind. Sure I may have occasionally done some harmless flirting, but that was all it had been: harmless. I had way too much to do on Remnant to tie myself up with something so selfish.

A knock on the door started me out of my thoughts. Qrow was here, it seemed. I opened the door to see the man in question, tiredly rubbing his eyes. He looked at me for a moment before suddenly and hastily averting his eyes. "Would you put those away? I don't need to see that." I looked down to see the top of my robe open, showing more than a little cleavage. I rolled my eyes and tightened the belt as much as I could.

"Gee, way to make a girl feel confident in herself." I joked as he entered my room, eyes still turned away. After I shut the door behind him, I took a seat on my bed.

He pointedly ignored my remark. "So what's so important that you had to call me here at seven in the morning?" I held up the duffel bag with the remains of my weapon in it, giving it a shake for emphasis. The metal inside ground together roughly, putting out an almost gravelly noise. He took the bag and opened it, no doubt expecting the worst. This was probably as close to the worst as I could get, though. He stared at it for a moment, confused, before it dawned on him. "This is-" He looked to me, eyes wide with shock.

"Yeah, it is." He handed me the bag back. "After I left you at the diner, I got a text from Blake, saying that a hunter had shown up and was harassing them and the people she and Adam were protecting. When I got there, the hunter was probably seconds away from outright killing Blake. So I-"

Qrow interrupted me. "Wait wait wait, 'probably'?" He said skeptically. I gave him a flat look.

"He was standing over her prone body with his flail ready to slam it onto her head." I let out an exasperated sigh. "Anyway, I intervened. As we were fighting, he used his semblance to weaken my gauntlets. His words, not mine. Then, towards the end of the fight, he got the advantage and I blocked one of his attacks, which caused my left gauntlet to break into about a hundred pieces and my right one to become one hit from doing the same."

He spared another glance at the duffel. "What happened to the hunter?" This was the part that I'd been dreading.

I took a deep breath, and told him. "Dead. After the hit that broke my gauntlets, my aura went down to 3%. I tried to resolve it peacefully, but he wouldn't leave until the Faunus that I was protecting were dead." Qrow remained silent, spending a solid minute processing what had happened. I didn't blame him.

"Are you sure he's dead?" He asked tentatively. Dull, lifeless, blue eyes flashed in my mind.

"Yeah, pretty sure." I said solemnly.

"I'm sorry," He placed a consoling hand on my shoulder. "Um, look." He grabbed the duffel with the remains of Ember Celica in it. "I know a guy who can rebuild 'em."

I pursed my lips in thought. "See, that's the thing though. I'm not sure that I _want_ to use Ember Celica." At Qrow's confused look I added. "I mean yeah, fist fighting is Yang's thing, but" I gestured at the bag for emphasis. "it's _Yang's_ thing, not mine. Everything I know about fighting like Yang I picked up from the show and from muscle memory I developed while I trained in the forest. The whole time it never really felt right to me. It's like when I use Yang's semblance. Deep down I feel this sense of… wrongness, I guess."

"Wrongness?" He mirrored my statement with a question.

"It's hard to describe." I paused a moment to think. "It's- It feels like the more I use it, the less of myself there is. Ever since coming here, I've been hard pressed on all sides to do something or other to maintain my cover as Yang. And in doing so, I feel like my past is slipping away. Other than my semblance and aura I have practically nothing to call my own. When I first realized that I could use my semblance on command, it was the first time since coming to Remnant that I'd truly felt happy. That I had something to truly call my own."

"I uh, I can't even begin to understand how that feels." Qrow said apologetically.

Realizing that I had put quite a bit on him all of a sudden, I gently embraced him in a hug. "I know. I just- I felt like I needed to vent to someone or I would have exploded." Qrow returned the gesture. "But yeah, Ember Celica does need to be fixed. If for nothing else than posturing." It wouldn't look the least bit good for Yang to be without her signature weapon, after all.

More than likely I'd spend the day today in Vale relaxing and recovering from the complete mess that was yesterday. Hundred percent I'd have to go home tonight though, as frightening as the idea was to me. I didn't know what to do if Ruby figured out that something big had happened over my trip. It was impossible to dodge her questioning forever, and if she got too worried or curious, she might even get Tai involved. That would be trouble.

"Hey, I'm gonna get goin'. Qrow announced, pulled away from the hug that I hadn't realized was still going on. A bit embarrassed, I could only nod in reply. He appropriated the duffel with Ember Celica in it and headed for the door. "I'll message you with the information for it later today." He held up the duffel for emphasis.

"Thank you." I replied softly as he headed out the door to my room, leaving me in solitude. I felt a bit more relaxed knowing that Ember Celica would be well taken care of, and moved back into the bathroom to hang my clothes up to dry. The suds on top of the water broke apart when I pulled the plug, revealing a grayish, soupy mess. I was almost tempted to run the lot through a second time, but that would have taken literally all day and there wasn't a lot to do here in the room.

Several very boring hours later, my clothes were passably dry and clean. It was nearing noon and I had yet to eat something at all today, so I headed for a nearby fast food joint. The burger and fries were honestly underwhelming and forgettable compared to the dinner last night. I paid and left, deciding to just walk around the city without a destination in mind. My scroll was at about half charge, so I wasn't worried about not having it if I needed it.

My wandering eventually led me to an abandoned, neglected park area. Trash was scattered around the place, the children's playground equipment was rusting, and there were weeds in pretty much every crack on the pavement. I sat down on a nearby bench, not liking the way that it creaked. Despite its homely façade, it was very quiet. I couldn't hear any sounds that normally accompanied the hustle of a city the size of Vale. It was actually very relaxing, just sitting in the cool shade of a pavilion.

This was, of course, interrupted as my scroll chose this moment to let me know that I had gotten a message. An explosive sigh left my lips as I checked the device. I expected a number of different things: a message from Qrow about my weapon, a message from Izanami detailing something else I had to do, even a message from Adam telling me that they had disposed of the corpse of the hunter. All of these were wrong.

Turns out it was just a weather notification saying that the temperatures outside would drop below freezing tonight. That was definitely a reason to get home. My scroll got closed and shoved back into my pocket. Unfortunately, my relaxation was again interrupted: this time by something cold and hard pressed into the back of my head.

"Don't turn around." A female voice whispered softly from right behind me. I almost laughed at the incredulity of it.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" I asked to myself in disbelief. Though it seemed the bandit thought that my question was directed at her.

"No, I'm not. Now hand over your money." She said in a firmer, more confident voice. Couldn't I go one day without someone trying to rob me or kill me?

"Listen. I don't want to hurt you. So please – lower the gun, turn around, and walk away so I won't have to." I spoke calmly. Please listen, please listen, please listen. After a few moments of silence, I heard the telltale sound of the hammer of the weapon being pulled back. There was my answer, it seemed. With a resigned sigh, I triggered my semblance. The near constant rustle of the wind hitting the trees was silenced and I turned to get the first look at my attacker.

She was thin, but not scrawny. Her cotton candy pink colored hair was styled in a pixie cut, and the arm holding the gun had a tattoo of a skull on the wrist. I grabbed the gun out of her hand and deactivated my semblance. Her expression morphed from determination to horror as she realized that not only had she been disarmed, but that I had her weapon.

"Leave." I told her firmly. She gulped nervously, spared one last glance at her lost weapon, and fled. I eventually lost sight of her as she turned down an alley. Pulling back the slide partway revealed that it was indeed loaded – with ice dust rounds. I couldn't see the grade offhand, but they would come in handy regardless. I flipped the safety on and tucked the sidearm into my pocket. Hoping that she didn't have equally dubious friends just out of sight, I opted to head to the ferry.

By the time four thirty rolled around, I had stopped by the diner, eaten a quick meal, and managed to hop on the ferry for home. Qrow text me in the meantime, telling me that my weapon was being worked on at a place close to the Sim Center and that it would be done the following weekend, barring any complications. With Ember Celica officially taken care of, a feeling of relief washed over me. After shooting a message to Tai letting him know that I was on the ferry coming home, I went and sat down on one of the plastic and metal lounge chairs that were scattered about the deck.

The ferry sputtered along steadily, eventually arriving at the coast of Patch about ten minutes later. I spotted Tai about halfway down the parking lot, and I don't think that I'd ever been happier to see him than I was now.

"Hey kiddo. You have fun?" He greeted with a lazy smile.

"Yeah. Glad to be back home though." I replied, hugging him. It wasn't long until he noticed the shabby state of my clothes.

"You uh, get into a fight?" He asked, giving me a once over.

I made a 'so-so' gesture. "Blake and I were sparring this morning, so you're half right."

He nodded once and with a cheeky grin added "Did you win?"

"Yeah, but weren't using anything fancy. Just fists." I said with a shrug. Tai hummed an acknowledgment and got into the driver's seat of the car. I tossed my bag in the back and got into the opposite side. Right as I went to put my scroll in the charging dock, it chirped a notification. Upon checking it, I noted that it was from Izanami.

' _We must speak later, in private.'_ A sudden chill ran down my spine upon reading the message. Normally, Izanami had seen fit to message me whenever and wherever they had pleased. For them to suddenly need to speak in private, that was alarming.

"What's the matter honey?" Tai was looking over at me, waiting to pull out of the parking lot and onto the main road that lead home.

"Um," I slid my scroll shut and placed it on the charging dock. "Tukson messaged me saying that the book on the Great War that was supposed to arrive next weekend is going to be delayed." The lie slipped easily from my lips. I sat back on the seat, trying to pass my worry off as disappointment.

Tai pulled out onto the road and accelerated. "I noticed that you're reading a lot more than you used to." His voice didn't convey concern or worry – only pride. He was proud that his daughter had taken a more active role in learning. The thought invoked mixed emotions. It told me that Tai knew Yang hadn't been very studious at Signal, something I had figured out upon seeing Yang's grades from past semesters in the system. She had good test scores, it was just pretty much everything else that was lacking.

He probably attributed the academic turnaround to Yang's- my accident. Or at least that was the going theory that I had. "I guess I just figured out how much fun reading is." I replied with a short laugh and a shrug.

"Who are you and what have you done with Yang?" He asked rhetorically with a short chuckle. A bolt of panic shot through me for a split second before I realized that he had been making a joke.

"Ha ha," I replied sarcastically.

"Honestly though – I really am glad you're taking your schoolwork more seriously." He replied after a moment.

"My stay in the hospital kind of put things into perspective for me." I replied in a low voice. Tai knew that the accident was a sore topic, and usually clammed up whenever I mentioned it. It felt dirty to do, but I really just wanted to get home and seclude myself in my room for a week or so.

Thankfully, it seemed like that trick still worked, as the remaining five minutes of the drive home were quiet. I grabbed my bag and headed up to my room, not seeing Ruby. At first I wondered where she was, but then I remembered that she was sleeping over at a friend's house this weekend. The moment I sat down on my bed, my scroll chimed an alert.

It was a notification from the Sword app that read:

 _You have been invited to text chat with: ?_

 _(Accept) (Decline)_

Why was there even a decline button? I briefly entertained the thought of seeing what would happen, before putting curiosity aside in favor of learning why it had been so urgent that I speak to my mysterious guardian in private. Immediately upon pressing 'accept', another notification popped up on screen.

' _My restoration of your aura before you fought the hunter was a one time deal. That will not be happening again. I overstepped my limits and nearly exposed my interference.'_ I already kind of figured that, but I wanted to get onto the main reason that Izanami had contacted me.

'What was so important that you needed to talk about?' I sent back.

A few moments later, they sent a reply. _'You are progressing well in your training, but it is still not enough.'_ How is what I've been doing not enough? I'd been working my ass off these past months. I moved to tell it as such, but It replied before I could.

' _I understand you have put forth tremendous effort in your training. You are doing well, but our enemies are still much, much stronger than you are.'_

That did it for me. "You think I don't know that?" I hissed at the phone in a low voice. "I know it'll be _years_ before I can take on any of Salem's lackeys let alone the queen bitch herself on even footing." Realizing that I was probably seconds away from crushing my scroll, I took a deep, calming breath. "I know I'm weak. I'm doing the best I can." My voice was barely audible, my anger having fled from me.

It was about ten seconds before another message came through. ' _I apologize. It has been some time since I have found another soul to guide as I have with you. You have proven yourself more than trustworthy and I have spurned it with cryptic messages and half-truths. If you desire it we can talk more succinctly in person.'_ I froze. In person? What did that mean? My scroll chirped another alert before I could think on it any further.

' _It would not technically be in person, just within your mindscape. All you would have to do is act like you are going to sleep. Tai will not be concerned, thinking that you are taking a nap.'_ As sketchy as the proposition sounded, I'd be damned if I was going to pass up a chance to meet with the being that brought me here. I closed my scroll, laid down on my bed, and closed my eyes. The faint hum of the house's air conditioner went silent, as if I had activated my semblance.

Opening my eyes revealed a massive desert canyon that seemed to stretch on forever. Despite being in what seemed like the Remnant equivalent to Death Valley, it wasn't hot, or even humid. I took a hesitant step forward and the rocky ground crunched underfoot as I walked. I was unsure of where I was actually headed. In what seemed like the blink of an eye, a small rock formation appeared in front of me. At its peak, there was a gold embroidered sword stabbed down into the boulder. It looked extremely lavish, undoubtedly something that the richest of kings would wield.

The symbolism briefly confounded me, before I noticed the parallel to the place where the Haven relic was being kept. "You are correct." The same, familiar voice I had heard in my dream spoke from in front of the rock. "This is the Vault of the Summer Maiden under Shade Academy, and I am Izanami: the spirit that resides within the Relic of Destruction." It's smoky humanoid shape was stood a few feet in front of me, positioned between me and the Relic, looking exactly like it had in my dream.

"But, I thought that you couldn't interact with anyone unless we were with your relic?" I asked confusedly. I was under the impression that Izanami was a deity or something similar to it, not a spirit trapped in a sword.

"The relic spirits are vastly more complicated than you perceive us to be. Though you are partially correct." It floated over to where the sword was, placing a hand upon the pommel. "Under normal circumstances in a peaceful world, I would be limited to the room you see before you. But like the other relic spirits, we gain power not through the passage of time, but when the trait that we embody occurs. Every death, every act of violence, even something as simple as an insult gives me power." My breath hitched at the implications. On a world like Remnant, Izanami had to be incomprehensibly powerful after so many years of warfare against the Grimm and the unrestrained racism alone.

Though there was something that bothered me. "If you're so powerful, then why can't you just stop Salem on your own?" It turned to look at me, and I could practically _feel_ it's anger at my words.

"You think I have not tried?" It replied in an almost facetious tone. "For the first millennia after the Gods departed, I did _nothing_ but search for someone worthy to wield me to end that monster's existence. Every time, all I found was Ozma, sealing me away in a vault somewhere for 'my own protection'." Izanami sounded extremely bitter about that, though I really couldn't blame them.

"Ozma? You mean Ozpin?" I asked confusedly.

"That is what he goes by in that form." It confirmed, a harsh tone to its ethereal voice. "Ozpin is not the man you know, but rather the soul that inhabited that body before Ozma was reincarnated into it. You see, Ozma existed on Remnant before it was called Remnant, back before the Gods left. I cannot reveal the entire story to you yet, but suffice it to say that you would do well to mistrust him. What I can tell you is that over time, Ozpin's soul passed on and was overwritten by Ozma's. Such is the fate of every one of his vessels." It removed the hand from the sword and took a few steps towards me. "You are strong, but you are not yet strong enough." It paused for a moment, as if in thought. "When I originally brought you here, I intended to use you as a foil to disrupt Salem's plans and nothing more. Over the last few months I have watched you grow into someone worthy of wielding me."

Wow. That was.. flattering. "Um, thank you."

It raised a hand. "Do not thank me yet, you still have much to do before you are ready. For now, I have given you a lot to think about. I will send you back to Patch. And if you ever have questions, all you need do is ask." The world went white and the next thing I knew I was laying down on my bed, Tai hovering over me.

"Hey, you're awake. Ruby got home about fifteen minutes ago and dinner is just about ready." He said with a small smile. It was weird, despite not technically being asleep, it felt like I got a full eight hours of rest in that brief conversation.

"I'll be right down," I replied, suppressing a yawn. After standing and stretching, I made my way over to the dresser where I kept the notebook of all my future knowledge. Though over the last few months it had just become my book where I recorded everything I felt would be important moving forward. I added everything I had learned in my seemingly brief talk with Izanami. A glance at the wall clock told me that it had been… an hour? That didn't seem right, though I guess it did explain why dinner was almost ready and it had barely been quarter 'til five when I got home.

I placed my notebook back into its nook, got changed into a more intact outfit, and headed downstairs. Ruby was sitting on the couch, already changed into her PJs, and currently working on her weapon. Her tongue was sticking out slightly and her face was scrunched up in intense concentration. Crescent Rose was currently sitting on the table, expanded in all its glory, while Ruby worked on something at the very tip where the blade and the handle connected. I briefly thought about startling her, but it might cause her to mess something up with her weapon. So I simply took a seat in a spot at the opposite end of the couch, content to watch her work.

She continued inserting small metal parts into various places, before placing the cover on and screwing it shut. I had practically zero idea what she had done, but she depressed a button near the middle of the handle and the entire thing shrank into its familiar storage form. Though one key thing that happened here was that the blade still sticking out from the rest of it.

"Oooooh." Ruby groaned in frustration, and hit the same button again causing the process to reverse and Crescent Rose to return to full form. She returned all of her tools to her small toolkit in a nook under the table and moved to lean her weapon against the wall behind the TV. When she started back towards the couch, she reeled back slightly in shock at seeing me. "When did you get here?"

"I've been here for a few minutes." I replied, a small smirk on my face. Ruby floundered for a moment before shaking her head.

Dinner was quiet, with Tai and Ruby doing the majority of the talking. Afterwards, I told them I was headed out into the forest to use the last hour or so of daylight left for a workout. As I made my way back to my usual training grounds, I thought about what Izanami had said about Ozpin. It said that he was there during the time before the brothers left Remnant. Which meant that Ozpin was several millennia old and likely Salem was too. Their connection was still a mystery to me. Salem probably used to be human, or at least she _looked_ like what a Grimm-ified human would be. I doubted it was as simple as 'Salem fell into a vat of Grimm goo Joker-style and suddenly developed a hard-on for wiping out humanity'.

I finally arrived at my training area, habitually flicking my wrists to deploy Ember Celica before realizing that I didn't have them. A pang of sadness ran through me. I knew that they would likely be back within a week, but it still hurt. As much as I felt a new weapon would be good, Ember Celica was Yang's core identity. That got me thinking. Maybe I didn't specifically need a _new_ weapon, but rather an addition to Ember Celica to make it my own. I felt that this would be the right decision, a nice middle ground between sticking with Yang's weapon and making my own.

As I did my pre-workout stretches, I mulled over what such an addition would entail. I wanted it simple: no overcomplicated mechanics like having each gauntlet mechashift into a completely different weapon, like Ruby's sniper-scythe-warscythe or Pyrrha's spear-rifle-sword. A rocket punch where I launched the front of the gauntlet forward would be cool in theory, but I foresaw numerous ways that such a mechanism could go wrong without some way to reel the launched portion of the gauntlet back in. Even with something like chains or thick metal twine connected to it, they could get tangled, or severed easily. The resulting repair would be costly and time consuming.

I took a deep breath and started running through a series of moves against an imaginary opponent. Punches and kicks were sent out, and imaginary attacks were blocked and dodged. I nearly tripped and fell flat on my face when I tried to do a move that involved bullet jumping, only saved by thrusting a hand in front of me and catching the ground. I definitely needed Ember Celica back. With a sigh of frustration, I got up and moved my attacks from my imaginary opponent to a nearby tree that was still standing. I started out with light attacks, the hits barely even forcing my aura to flare up in response. After about a hundred repetitions, I increased the power to the point where I felt my aura thrum with every hit, creating visible cracks on the bark of the tree.

That routine lasted for about a minute, before I fully activated both Yang's and my semblance, and launched one final punch as hard as I could. The impact was eerily silent, almost like how sound works in space. The punch buried my arm halfway up to my elbow in the tree. I held that position for as long as I could, my internal counter telling me that seven seconds went by before the strain of my semblance became too much. At the same time as my semblance deactivating, I yanked my arm out of the poor, innocent tree. An almost earsplittingly loud shockwave erupted from the source of the impact. I winced as the top part of the tree tipped backwards, colliding with and tearing the branches off of several others as it went. It eventually came to a rest, creating a cloud of dust on impact.

I took a series of deep, calming breaths while I powered down Yang's semblance. As the dust cloud slowly cleared, I felt a pair of eyes on me. A quick survey of the clearing revealed nothing. A grim part of my mind told me that it might be Yang's estranged mother, but I didn't see any birds in the trees. Speaking of Raven, a terrible thought occurred to me. The show said that her semblance was the ability to create portals to those that she is bonded with. When Yang died, Raven should have felt her connection with her daughter die too. There was only two possibilities: either she knew about Yang's accident and wrote it off as death having the effect of removing the bonded portal, or she had people she was previously bonded with die and be resuscitated and felt her bond reestablish with said person. The latter would imply that Raven knew something was wrong with her daughter, prompting an investigation, something that she could easily accomplish with her transformation. The latter honestly scared the shit out of me.

Clearing my mind, I spared one last glance around the clearing before heading back. As I walked, that feeling of being watched never went away. About thirty seconds into my trip back, I decided to send Qrow a text asking him where he was. I remained unmoving as I waited for a reply. A couple minutes went by with no reply, until finally it came.

' _At Beacon. Just got out of a meeting with Oz. What's up?'_ So it wasn't him watching me. This wasn't the first time I had felt eyes boring into me from somewhere out in the forest. Every time it turned out to be Grimm of some kind or another. Either this Grimm was being extra sneaky, or my stalker wasn't a Grimm.

'I think I'm being watched. I went into the forest for a quick workout and it feels like there's eyes trying to burn a hole in me.' I replied, covering my scroll with a hand so my observer couldn't see it. Deciding that standing in the middle of a clearing was too obvious, I opted to sit against a nearby tree. Odds were that my voyeur knew I knew they were there. It seemed like they weren't going away any time soon either. The feeling intensified when a trio of what looked like young beowolves sprinted from the tree line opposite me.

A smirk made its way to my face as I saw a sudden opportunity to give my unwanted observer a little show. I raised a hand, pressed my middle finger and thumb together, and snapped while simultaneously triggering my semblance.

I knew I'd have to work fast if I wanted the illusion to be effective. Yang's semblance activated in all its fiery glory as I made a beeline for the closest wolf. One. A punch to the throat undoubtedly ended its life, as I felt several of its bones break upon impact. Two. I rushed towards the next wolf, its gait making a throat punch like the first one impossible at this angle, so I instead opted to twist its neck. My stomach twisted as I felt the dull thumps of snapping bones and tendons. Three. The last wolf was quite a bit further away than the first two, so it took a full second to run to it. Four. A trio of punches to its chest, the third one actually sinking into the flesh of the beast, ending its life. Five. I felt the pinprick pressure in my head that let me know I was overexerting my semblance. At the six second mark, I finally made it back to the tree and raised my hand in the same snapping motion I had before I used my semblance.

The pressure went away as time restarted. It may have hurt to use my semblance for so long, but the results were worth it. As one, the wolf-like Grimm let out sharp yips of pain before falling to the ground. Thankfully, it seemed that all my hits were indeed killing blows as the Grimm started sublimating almost immediately. I did my best to simultaneously catch my breath and make myself not look winded from my effort. A giddy flutter of happiness ran through me at the display. My scroll chiming an alert almost killed my mood. Almost.

' _What do you think it is?'_ Was the reply I received from Qrow. I noted that my observer hadn't left after that display of force. Whether to be happy or nervous about that I didn't know.

'Don't know. Too persistent and patient to be Grimm. Though I just gave them a show using my semblance.' I sent back while moving to stand up. Once the message was delivered, I pocketed my scroll and started for home once more.

Thankfully, about a minute before I arrived at the Xiao Long house, the observer finally left. Either I had gone out of their range or they had just decided to leave. I sent Qrow a message letting him know as such, noting that the sky had begun to darken. I spared one last scrutinization of the forest before heading inside. The first thing I spotted was Ruby snoozing on the couch with part of a cookie hanging limply from her mouth. On the table in front of her was a partially empty plate of cookies and an empty glass of milk.

Unable to help myself, I let out a muted squee at the adorable sight. I approached her and carefully removed the cookie. As gently as I could, I picked Ruby up and carried her up the stairs to her room. The stylized rose that was her emblem greeted me as I slowly opened the door, wincing as it creaked sharply. Thankfully, Ruby didn't stir from the sudden noise. I breathed a silent sigh of relief and moved to place Ruby down on her bed. She hummed contentedly and snuggled into her pillow. After I pulled the covers over her, I quietly crept back towards the door.

"Yang?" I heard Ruby mumble sleepily behind me. Turning around, I saw her staring at me with a happy grin and sleepy, half-lidded eyes. "Thank you."

With a broad smile of my own, I said "You're welcome. Good night Ruby."


	9. Chapter 9

Any hope of having a normal night and going to sleep died as I opened the door to my bedroom and saw none other than Roman's sidekick sitting on my bed, flipping through the pages of a notebook. Thankfully, the cover was purple and not red, so it was only Yang's _actual_ journal and not my notes. She looked up, her mismatched eyes locking onto my lilac ones.

I started to say something, but was silenced as Neo suddenly appeared in front of me, put two fingers over my mouth, and handed me what looked like a business card. With a devious smirk and a flash of light, she vanished, leaving me alone once more. I looked down at the card and saw only two things: a scroll number, and the familiar slightly tilted jack-o-lantern face that Roman used as his emblem. Sitting down on the bed, I contemplated what I should do.

On one hand, I had just basically been handed access to Neo and Roman on a silver platter, hopefully, before Cinder got her dirty mitts on them. Given a few months, though hopefully it wouldn't take that long, I could earn their trust and convince them to side against Cinder. Something like that would likely prove extremely difficult considering how much Roman believed that the only way to survive was with the aforementioned bitch.

On the other hand, Neo had _literally_ _been_ in my house,my room, without me knowing. If Roman was already compromised by Cinder, then they had an easy way in, putting both Ruby and Tai in danger. I could only pray that they hadn't already thrown their metaphorical hat in with Cinder. Though, if I remember it right, Cinder had the Fall Maiden's power before she recruited Roman. If my hunch proved current, then I still had a year and a half to turn the criminal mastermind to my side.

Seeing no legitimate reason to put off calling him, I reluctantly grabbed my scroll and sat down on my bed. A flutter of nervousness ran through me as the connection tone started. A moment later, the familiar voice of Roman started speaking. " _Ah, so_ you're _the one who finally managed to bring down ol' Eisen. He's been a thorn in my side for years_."

"Glad I could help." I replied sarcastically, earning a guffaw from the criminal.

" _I like your spirit, kid. I've always admired people willing to get their hands dirty. For the right price at least_."

"Well, consider Eisen a freebie then."

" _No such thing as a freebie, kid. Anyway, if you're interested, I'd like to see if you're fit for a place in my organization_." My heart leapt at the chance.

"Um, alright, but what exactly would I be doing?" I asked, feigning hesitance. I didn't want to come across as too eager, because all that would do was ruin my chance at infiltrating his organization.

" _Don't get ahead of yourself there. I still need to have the meet and greet where we 'talk shop' so to speak. Consider it a job interview._ " I could practically hear the smile in his voice as he spoke.

After pretending to think on it for a few seconds, I answered "Okay. I'm in."

" _Excellent. Keep your scroll on, Goldilocks_." With that, the line disconnected, and I exhaled a breath that I didn't know I'd been holding. My whole body was heavy with fatigue, and I wanted nothing more than to just flop over into the bed. Despite this, I grabbed my notebook and wrote down the new information I had gained from Roman, finishing it off with adding 'KEEP AWAY FROM CINDER' circled, underlined, and with arrows pointing to the brief bio I had on Roman and Neo.

I put my notes away, tucked my scroll on the dock, and flopped onto the bed. My hand went over the edge and thumped onto something hard. A quick peek revealed a wooden case, similar to the one that Ember Celica was kept in. This one was embossed with a white version of Ruby's symbol. I inhaled sharply at the realization that this case belonged to Summer. How had I missed this? A note was taped to the corner.

' _I finally remembered to grab this out of storage for you. Dad told me about it and said it would make a nice early Christmas present. Now we both have something to remember Mom by.'_

The case opened easily to reveal a pair of armguards, silver in color, and lacking most of the armor that mine had. Instead, only the frame of the weapon seemed to be finished. There was a metal box attached to the top of the guard that was about as wide and twice as thick as your average cell phone. Putting the armguard on seemed simple enough, but as soon as the lock latched shut the weapon deployed on its own.

The framework folded open to encompass the majority of my left forearm, and the box that used to rest on the top of the gauntlet now extended to the side flatways. There was a button next to the thumb that could be pressed with a flex of the wrist. Upon doing so, a massive, inch wide blade extended from the box. It was long, nearly as long as your average sword, extending a full foot and a half past my hand.

A cursory inspection of the blade told me that it was single edged, with the edge facing outward, and still razor sharp despite sitting in storage for who knows how many years. This was… this was beyond words. Summer had _used_ these. It was overwhelming, holding something that had such a rich history. I was almost afraid to use them myself. Afraid that I would damage them irreparably like I had with Ember Celica.

I wasn't stupid. I knew that the odds of someone else having a semblance even remotely close to Eisen's was practically nil. The blade returned to its undeployed form as easily as it had come out. I compacted the gauntlet once more and placed it back into the box. After moving the box to my desk for safe keeping, I laid back down and promptly passed out.

Thankfully, it seemed that my subconscious had decided to give me a reprieve from lost memories, as my sleep was dreamless and relaxing. I woke feeling refreshed and ready to start the day. At least that was until I checked my scroll and saw two new messages, both from Torchwick.

They were clear cut and simple. ' _Rear alley behind Dust Devils on 102_ _nd_ _street at 7 PM. An associate of mine will meet you there.'_ Was the first one. The second just said ' _Don't be late and make sure you come incognito. You aren't exactly inconspicuous.'_

That was fairly obvious. Though how exactly I would accomplish that was going to take some finagling. As much as I hated to, I would probably have to ask Tukson to cover for me. Tai had his number and would undoubtedly call him regarding something like staying the night in Vale again, which was likely to happen. It was already 8:29, so if I hurried I could make the 9:30 ferry. Though that would take a lot of convincing, both in regards to Tukson and Tai.

So it was with great reluctance that I shot a quick text to Tukson asking him to cover for me if Tai called, and I would owe him a favor in exchange. Telling Tai that I needed to go to Vale relied on Tukson being brisk with his reply. Figuring that the old idiom 'a watched pot never boils' applied here, I headed downstairs to fix something quick for breakfast. Both Ruby and Tai's doors were open, lacking their respective occupants. In the living room, I noted the curious lack of noise that usually accompanied off days. Even the TV was turned off, which almost never happened.

"Hello?" I called out as I wandered into the kitchen. The house seemed abandoned, though I didn't know why. With a shrug, I opted to just make breakfast for myself in the meantime. When I went to get the milk out, I noticed a note taped to the fridge.

' _Took Ruby on our camping trip, won't be back until late Wednesday. I left you some money on the living room table if you decide to order out. Love you. -Dad'_

Huh, that was incredibly convenient. I guess with everything that happened the last few days I had forgotten that Ruby and Tai were going on their yearly camping trip today. From what I was able to piece together, the tradition had started right after Ruby told Tai that she wanted to be a huntress. So he took her into the woods, gave her basic supplies, and told her to camp out for a couple days. He would stay in the shadows, overseeing and making sure that no Grimm got near her and that she was doing alright. His role was practically a nonissue now that Ruby had formal training and an actual weapon, so they just turned it into a fun camping trip.

I opted to put aside making the bowl of cereal for now and hurried back to my room to rescind my message to Tukson. Thankfully he hadn't replied yet, so I told him to forget about it, but I would still be available to come in if he needed me to. With that taken care of, I went back downstairs. Several minutes later and cereal in hand, I plonked down onto the couch and flipped on the television. The cartoon on the screen told me that Ruby had been watching it this morning. I switched it to my usual news program, a habit that I had on Earth and made sure to keep up here. Most of it was fluff and nice stories designed to please the masses and reduce overall levels of negativity.

It was a strange inverse to home. The majority of news outlets on Earth ran lots of terrible and shocking stories to keep their viewers placated and meek, something that didn't work as often that the media broadcasters hoped that it would. Here it was the opposite. You would be hard pressed to find a story on a murder or a scandal in the metaphorical haystack of stories on charities for children or the latest innovation in Grimm killing tech. Here the media needed to keep the populace hopeful and happy, rooted in the belief that they were safe.

I knew that, had she a mind to, Salem could order every last Grimm on the planet to overrun humanity and there was nothing that we could do about it. She didn't want that, for some twisted reason. From what I understood, she wanted to have Ozpin to suffer the ultimate failure: a humanity that imploded on itself. It went anathema to everything that Ozpin was trying to accomplish, in his own warped perceptions at least. I genuinely believed that he cared for humanity, but he had suffered so much loss that he was numb to the individual deaths, even his own since he could just take over another body. It was why he had all but killed Pyrrha himself by forcing the Fall Maiden's power on her.

My scroll blaring snapped me out of my thoughts. I set the now soggy bowl of Pumpkin Pete's down and grabbed the offending device. It was a reply from Tukson. He said that the shop would be closed all this week, as he had some business to attend to, but he would expect me on my usual time on Saturday. By business I presume he meant with Adam. I sent a reply letting him know that it wouldn't be a problem and thanks for letting me know that he'd be out. With that taken care of, I set my scroll back onto the table and finished my breakfast.

I toiled most of the day away tidying the house here and there, and before I knew it four PM had rolled around. The last thing I did before I left was ensure that Zwei had fresh food and water, along with giving him a vigorous belly rub. The weather outside had already dropped well into chilly territory, so I had a long sleeve shirt on underneath Summer's weapons, and a thick grey hoodie I borrowed from Tai on over top of that. I fixed my substantial hair into a tight bun which got tucked into the pulled up hood. With that all taken care of, I pocketed the money Tai had left me and headed for the ferry.

I was almost reluctant to go into Vale, as it seemed that anytime I went there for a reason other than work at Tukson's, crazy shit happened. As much of a relief as it was to be armed again, the thought wouldn't leave me alone. What would happen this time when I went? The whole prospect of an 'interview' was fairly subpar compared to the other things I had done. Though considering exactly _who_ I was to meet with, nothing could be ruled out.

On the ferry, the reality of what I was about to do began to sink in. During my time here on Remnant, I had done my best to remain within the law as much as I could. It felt wrong, knowing that I was about to go against everything that I had once fought for. As much as I wanted to believe I had broken the law with the two people I killed this past weekend, I knew that anything I told myself would be a lie.

I pushed the thought from my mind, leaned against the railing, and took a deep breath. "Lot on your mind, huh?" Someone asked knowingly. I turned to see a small, blue-themed girl standing next to me. She was about Ruby's height, cotton candy blue hair, and varying shades of blue on her outfit which was a pair of thick, skin tight sweat pants and a matching, bulky sweater.

"What makes you say that?" I asked, turning back to the water.

"I recognize that sigh anywhere." She replied with a short laugh. "It's the sigh of someone with too many things to do and not enough time to do them."

I couldn't help a scoff. "Trust me, _time_ is one thing I have plenty of."

"You know you say that, and then before you know it, whatever you were dreading or putting off from doing is suddenly right there and you have no idea what to do." Was her thoughtful reply. "Best thing for ya is to just pull that metaphorical bandage off and get it over with." She wasn't wrong. My indecisiveness had already forced me into a position where I had to kill that hunter, Eisen.

"You know what? You're right. Thank-" I turned to face her, but she had disappeared. A quick survey of the deck revealed no one that looked even remotely like her. After the ferry docked, I waited half an hour to see if she ever disembarked, but she never did. People _don't_ just disappear like that. That didn't make any sense. Had I hallucinated the whole thing? Had it been an illusion? Something else entirely?

I shook my head, purging the thought from my mind. Whatever it had been, it had helped me figure out my path forward. The path that lay with Roman Torchwick. Given that the last ferry had just departed for Patch, I had just enough time to grab a quick snack, reserve a hotel for myself, and head for the rendezvous. I opted to go with a different hotel, this one having more amenities, but being almost twice as much per night. I told the guy running the place that I might not be in, but to keep the room reserved anyway. Hopefully whatever Roman had planned wouldn't take long.

At quarter 'til seven, I found myself at the entrance of the alley where Roman had said to be. It was empty. Given that I was early I should have expected that. With nothing else to do, I leaned against the brick wall and closed my eyes. I focused on the feeling of Yang's semblance, drawing out just enough power to trigger the effect that it had on my irises. With the baggy clothing, the new weapons, and the eye color change, even people that I knew would likely have a hard time recognizing me.

Practically on the hour, the familiar form of Neo suddenly walked out of a nearby shop. It seemed that she was the acquaintance that Roman told me about. She locked eyes with me and raised an eyebrow curiously.

"I thought going incognito was the point." I retorted. Neo answered with a roll of her eyes and held out an arm. Figuring that she was going to teleport us, I grabbed on. Almost immediately upon doing so, the world shattered like glass, revealing what looked like the interior of a warehouse. It appeared to be mostly empty, save for a quintet of shipping crates stacked along one wall, and a small table. Sat at the table, was the big man himself: Roman Torchwick.

A sudden wave of nervousness overcame me. It was similar to the time I had fought that beowolf in the forest. As if I had suddenly entered into something that was out of my depth. I felt the red fade from my eyes as Yang's semblance turned off. Now was not the time to get cold feet, so I took a deep breath and walked towards the table where Roman was.

"We meet at last." Roman chuckled, tipping his bowler hat to me. I sat down in the seat across from him, while Neo moved to sit on the table next to him.

"I won't lie," I told him, "I'm not exactly sure what you want to know about me that couldn't be found out with a quick search on the internet." And didn't _that_ scare the Hell out of me. Apparently when someone signs up to be a huntsman or huntress, all of their school records in hunter academies are made public. It was for people who want to hire someone for a mission or for other academies to offer scholarships to those still in primary hunter school. Granted, it didn't include any addresses or personal contact information; it just listed accomplishments and grades and the like.

"No, blondie, what I want to know can't be found on any school record or social media platform." He leaned forward. "I want to know the _real_ you. Not the you that's on the internet, gussied up to look good by the folks that run the academies." He flicked away his finished cigar butt nonchalantly and immediately lit another one. It seemed that he was a chain smoker. "What was running through your mind when you skewered Eisen? When you realized that you'd just killed a man?"

 _What the fuck!?_ His questions shocked me out of my thoughts. The smug smile was gone from his face, replaced with a stern expression that I hadn't seen from him on the show. He was dead serious, posing me a genuine question that I had to answer. Even Neo had turned away from her scroll to look at me, gauging how I would react.

"Um," I exhaled a short laugh. "I-" I started to say 'I guess', but I knew that wouldn't fly with him. There could be no room for uncertainty now. Not with so much at stake. "Satisfaction. That he wouldn't be able to harm me or what I cared about anymore." I paused to take a deep breath. "I hadn't gone into that fight intending to kill him, but-"

Torchwick cut me off. "But when you realized that you had no other options left, you didn't hesitate to do the deed." He finished for me.

"Yeah." I replied softly. He was silent for another half a minute, as if mulling over my words.

"Alright." He stood up, grabbing his cane and prompting Neo to do the same. Alright? That was it? That seemed like it took practically no time at all. Had I messed something up? "Relax, blondie. I've seen enough that I want to give you a probationary run, so to speak. If you do well, then we can consider further arrangements."

A probationary run sounded promising. "What would I be doing?" The conversation was interrupted by the loud clang of a door. I turned to see the same pink-haired girl that tried to rob me walking towards Roman.

"You wanted to see me, boss?" She asked respectfully.

"Grab that package that you were going to deliver. The new gal's gonna do it." He chomped his cigar and exhaled a big cloud of smoke. She glanced in my direction, clearly nonplussed at seeing me again.

The pink girl coughed once and said "On it" before hurrying off to a different door than the one she had come in from. The smell of cigar smoke was bringing long suppressed urges back. Back in college and for a couple years after, I had been a pack-a-day smoker, only quitting when my dad had gotten diagnosed with cancer from doing the same. I had done my share of research on the subject after coming here. Aura nullified all negative effects that came with smoking. Given that information, it had been inevitable that the thought of picking up the old habit crossed my mind. Hanging around Roman a lot like I figured that I would be in the future would put my resolve to the test.

It seemed that I had zoned out, because the pink girl had already returned with a satchel. After being handed the bag, I realized how heavy it was. As tempting as it was to look inside, I knew that wouldn't fly with Roman. The 'boss', I guess I could call him now, prompted me to get out my scroll and plugged in an address that was halfway across Vale. I would be delivering this bag to someone named 'Albert' and I would receive an identical bag that contained fifty thousand lien in hundreds. A sizable amount, but that was why the pink girl, who I now knew was named Alice, would accompany me on the trip.

Which is where we were now, having left the warehouse less than ten minutes ago. Roman told me that I was to be the one to deliver it, while Alice acted as backup. Not that he was expecting it to go south, as he told me, but the backup was just a precautionary measure.

"Just because you passed the initial test doesn't mean that he's going to recruit you full time." Alice spoke condescendingly as we crossed an empty street. "I have complete control over whether or not he gets a good report or a bad one." She threatened. This was getting old, fast.

"You held a gun to the back of my head, literally." I retorted. "At that range, aura wouldn't have stopped a bullet." At point blank range, aura wouldn't protect anyone from a firearm. It was similar to launching a surprise attack on a Hunter. Their aura wouldn't be in 'combat readiness' so to speak, so it would be a lot easier to penetrate.

Her voice held a mote of regret as she said "I wasn't gonna kill you." after a few seconds of silence.

I just rolled my eyes. "Yeah, I know that _now_. But at the time I had no idea." We walked in silence for another couple minutes, Alice spared me an occasional glance but otherwise did nothing. I waited until we got into a blind alley before asking "Would it make you feel better if I gave you your gun back?" She stopped, fixing me with a skeptical look as I pulled out her pistol.

"Don't just pull it out willy nilly like that!" She whispered harshly, moving towards me as if to cover it.

"Relax, I made sure that there was no one around. It's fine." I hoped that my words would pacify her. Alice floundered for a moment, before quickly accepting the handgun and stowing it away in the back of her waistband. Already I could tell that she was more at ease than she had been previously. Doubly so given that a few minutes later we arrived at the address where the delivery was to take place.

"Now, when they answer the door, don't freak out." Alice told me in a hushed voice. I didn't have time for a retort, as she was already knocking on the door, but what I would have said was 'that's precisely something that you don't say, because it makes the person you're telling it to more likely to freak out'. A couple seconds of hushed voices and the door opened to reveal… a completely nude woman. She also appeared to be covered in something that I wasn't sure I wanted to know was. No, scratch that. I _definitely_ didn't want to know if the absolute _reek_ of sex coming from the dimly lit room was any indication.

"Um, I have a package for Albert." I spoke as calmly as I could manage, which surprised even me, given the situation. The woman seemed hesitant, before turning around and shouting into the building. As she turned, I saw several fresh wounds on her back that looked too rough to be from a knife. Along side them was scar tissue that was practically identical.

"Sir, there's a courier here for you." There was something about the tone in her voice that struck a chord with me. It seemed almost defeated. Depressed even. Before I could think on it further, an equally nude overweight man came to the door, bearing a similar looking satchel to the one I had. It took everything in my power not to vomit right then as I averted my eyes from his exposed parts. He wordlessly handed his bag to Alice as he took mine, and then slammed the door shut. One look at Alice told me that she was as uncomfortable with him as I was.

I waited until we got several blocks away from that place before speaking. "Okay, what the _fuck_ was that?" Confusion was the emotion at the forefront of my mind. That and disgust.

"He um," Alice paused to adjust the thankfully dry satchel and leaned up against a light pole. "He runs a sex trafficking ring." I realized what she was implying almost immediately.

"That means that woman is-"

She interrupted me. "Yeah, but she's _his_." The last word was spoken with incredible disgust. "As are the other women that live there."

As much as I doubted anyone would lie about something as serious as this, I still had to ask. "How do you know this?" Rather than answer me verbally, she turned around and lifted her shirt partway up. On her back were scars nearly identical to the ones I had seen on that other woman.

Yang's semblance had always been tricky to use. Most of the time the emotional investment I had in a fight was enough to give me control over it. Right now, it seemed like it was boiling, thrashing around in an attempt to escape. I was hard pressed to keep it in check and I felt the telltale tingle in my eyes that signaled the color change. This was the first time since coming to Remnant that I had felt Yang's semblance activate on its own. The sound of glass shattering started me out of my thoughts. It only took a moment to realize that I had all but crushed part of the nearby light post with my grip and sending the fixture to the ground, breaking the glass case and lightbulb.

I released my death grip on the pole and took a deep, calming breath that did very little to abate my deep-seated rage. "We should probably get back to Roman." Despite how badly I wanted to march back there and gut that guy like a fish, I knew that it would very likely fuck up my chances with Torchwick. Not only that, but it would push me further down a path I didn't want to take. As gratifying it would be knowing that human garbage couldn't hurt anyone, there was likely someone just as bad if not worse than him somewhere else in his network.

I followed after Alice, not confident in my ability to find my way back to that warehouse. She seemed somber, almost. We had been walking for a few minutes when she suddenly stopped. I walked forward to ask what was wrong, when she suddenly drew her weapon and placed it under my chin.

"He never told you." She whispered.

"What?" Was the only thing I could reply.

The pistol dug into my chin further. "His name. He never told you his name." Hadn't he? I thought back to our conversations, and couldn't pick a moment when he had actually told me who he was. A cold bolt of panic shot through me. This was bad, and likely unsalvageable. It would take a miracle to fix.

"Listen, I know that you probably," The gun under my chin made me reconsider my words. "Definitely, don't trust me, but you have to believe. I'm not here to ruin what he has going." The hammer being pulled back told me that she wasn't buying it.

Her face inched closer to mine. "Who do you work for? Are you a cop?"

"I'm not a cop! I'm-" I took a shaky, deep breath. "I'm someone who has Roman's best interests in mind. I want to help him!" Her eyes met mine, and I could see the turmoil in them. A moment later, they settled into the same resolve that I had seen in the park. I was about to activate my semblance, but then an idea struck me. It was a longshot, but if it worked then I would be all but guaranteed to be in.

"Roman dies!" I bellowed, causing her to freeze.

"What?" Her face was scrunched up in confusion.

"If things keep going the way they are, in a couple years Roman is going to end up in a situation he has no way out of." The pressure of the gun on my chin lessened slightly, and I all but breathed a sigh of relief. "It ends with his death, and the near total destruction of Vale." I finished softly. She seemed even more conflicted than before. It was obvious that Roman had saved Alice from the clutches of that man, and that she cared a great deal for him.

"As in, you know what happens in the future." She spoke flatly, and with no small amount of disbelief. "Explain." The gun had still not been withdrawn, but at least it was something.

I would have to speak carefully so as to not reveal too much information, but I could definitely work with this. "You know the Vytal Festival, right? Big televised event, tens of thousands of people watching live and millions more watching on TV?" At her nod, I continued. "Imagine if one student killed another during a match, live. The panic that would cause? The sheer shitstorm of Grimm that would come out of the woodwork to attack Vale?" Her eyes widened at the implication. Good. "Okay, now picture that Atlas is running security alongside Beacon. All their robots and ships. Imagine someone having a computer virus that turns all those robots and ships against the civilians."

"What does this have to do with Roman?" She asked impatiently.

After another deep breath, I continued. "Someone has to deliver the virus to the Atlesian battleship. Roman makes a big scene during the festival, attacks Atlas forces, gets captured and put onto their flagship for safe keeping. Neo breaks him out, they kill the crew and upload the virus." I knew I was risking a Hell of a lot by telling her this, if she even believed it. My only hope was that the payoff was worth it. "He uploads the virus, fights a Huntress on his way out, and just as he's making good on his escape-" I let the word hover, hoping that she could put it together.

"Even if I did believe you, which I don't, what are you planning on doing here?" The pressure from the gun lessened a little bit more.

"I'd be going along as normal, until the person planning the attack approaches Roman to try to recruit him. Hopefully by then he'll trust me enough to listen to me when I say not to take their deal." I was explicitly avoiding using pronouns like 'she' and 'her' so as to not give Cinder's identity away. Alice seemed like a bit of a hothead and I wouldn't put it past her to seek revenge for a crime that Cinder hasn't even committed yet. Despite my explanation, I could tell that she still didn't believe me.

"You remember in the park? When I took your gun away?" A grimace appeared on her face at my question, but she nodded nonetheless. "Nothing stopped me from doing it again here. I wanted to prove a point to you: that I'm on your side. I need your trust as much as I need Roman's." I swallowed nervously. Hopefully the payoff was worth telling someone so much about what my plans are. "Which is why I'm willing to tell you the secret of my semblance."

Her eyes narrowed. "And what exactly is your semblance?"

I felt the gun dip even lower, finally feeling it leave the passive barrier of my aura. "It has two effects: one when it activates on its own, and one when I activate it. When it goes on its own, my perception of everything is magnified to the point where everything appears in slow motion. It, so far at least, has only ever triggered in combat against something. That's literally _nothing_ compared to when I activate it." I held out my hand. "It's a lot easier to explain if I show you." Almost reluctantly, she grasped my hand, squeezing it with unnecessary force.

"This better be good." She muttered, finally lowering the gun fully.

I could only smirk at her. "Trust me, it will be." Reaching out with my aura yielded… practically nothing. I felt no aura coming from her except a very faint, almost undetectable warmth. Was this what someone with locked aura felt like? I pushed the thought aside for now and searched for the feeling of my semblance. Here goes everything. Luckily, a car happened to be passing by right as I stopped time. Alice saw the car freeze in place, before realizing that it wasn't the only thing that did.

"What the Hell?" She murmured softly, head darting around in confusion. A couple seconds later I felt the familiar rumbling in my ears and icepick-in-brain sensation that told me I was overusing my semblance. The effect of my semblance vanished, making Alice jump at the sudden noise. A hand went to my head in a vain attempt to rub the pain away. "What _was_ that?"

"That was my semblance. Basically, it lets me stop time for a few seconds." I saw her flounder for a few seconds as the gravity of what I had just shown her sank in. She turned to look at the car that had passed, as if in expectation that it would do something else.

"You know what? Let's just go back. I'll think about what to do with you along the way." With that said, Alice started walking away, leaving me worried, but at the same time confident that I had done the right thing.

Twenty minutes later we found ourselves at the familiar façade of Roman's warehouse. "Wait here" Alice said gruffly just after we entered the same door we left out of. Roman was still at the same table, Neo having gone somewhere else. They spoke in hushed voices, occasionally glancing my way. I could feel a pit of nausea forming in my abdomen. Would she tell the truth? Would Roman like her report or would he dismiss me after all this? After what felt like forever, the both of them finally walked over to where I was standing.

"Well," Roman flicked away his cigar, forgoing lighting another one. "I have good news and bad news. The good news is that you're in." I felt my heart leap. "The bad news is that I don't have another job lined up for a few days, so until then you won't get anything other than moral support."

"It won't be for _that_ guy will it?" I asked, pointing at the sack that Alice had given to Roman.

He shook his head in the negative. "Nope, it's a once-a-year deal that _meatball_ and I have." The word 'meatball' was spoken as if it was an insult, so it seemed that Roman didn't like him either. I had met my fair share of creeps and bastards in my time as a lawyer, but I had never had to deal with anything as barbaric and inhuman as selling another person as property. The sheer rage and hatred I felt towards him scared me. It would be all too easy to end his life. Far, far too easy.

"If you don't need anything else, I think-" I'm gonna leave is what I had planned to say before I saw Alice coming over. She had a strange look on her face. Almost like she wanted to say something but was too afraid to. "You ok?"

"Yeah," She let out an explosive sigh. "Seeing that guy again gets me all-" She shuddered, as if her skin was crawling at the mere thought of that man. I couldn't blame her.

"Wanna get something to eat? My treat." Tai had left me just over 500 Lien, more than enough for two people to have a comfortable meal.

She frowned, "Actually, I have some stuff I need to do around here and it'll probably take a while." I expected her to decline, but I wouldn't feel right if I didn't at least offer. "And I still don't believe you, but you at least _seem_ like you want to do right by us. Just know that I'm gonna be keeping an eye on you." With that said, she walked off and headed to a room on the second floor of the warehouse.

I turned, finding Roman back over by the table, and jogged over to him. "Is it alright if I go?"

He scoffed. "I ain't runnin' a daycare. I'll call you when something comes up." He grabbed an ornately decorated silver case that was laying on the table and headed for a hallway that led further into the warehouse, eventually disappearing from sight. I didn't really fancy sticking around an empty warehouse, so I left, and made my way towards the hotel I was staying at.

Let's see. So far tonight I had: uncovered, or rather _discovered_ a man running a sex trafficking ring, revealed to someone that I had knowledge of the future regardless as to whether or not they believed me, and revealed the full secret of my semblance to that same person. All while infiltrating a well known criminal's organization in order to save said criminal from becoming a Scooby Snack for a Griffon. Well, mainly to prevent the events that lead to said snacking. That was just a bonus. The worst part was that I had no leads on Cinder save from one image I had managed to find of her on Remnant's equivalent to Facebook and the coordinates that Izanami had given me. My stomach rumbled, reminding me that my snack had done little in the way of alleviating my hunger. I'd have to get room service once I'd settled into the room I rented.

Some time later, I arrived at the hotel. The clerk at the front desk that I had talked to before was absent, but thankfully they had keyed my scroll to my room beforehand. I took the elevator up to the fifth floor, my room being the eighth one on the right. As I put my scroll to the scanner on the door, it rang out. Upon opening it, I saw that it was a text from an unknown number. The message read ' _Hey this is Blake. I got your number from Adam's scroll and was wondering if you had a moment to talk?'_ 'Talk'? Blake didn't just 'talk'. Something was wrong.

I replied with a 'sure, what's up?' before entering my room and relocking the door. Before I could even take off the hoodie, I got another message.

' _You still in Vale?_ _And if so could we meet somewhere?_ ' Something was definitely wrong. _What_ that was exactly was a mystery to me, at least until Blake gets here.

'Yeah, I'm staying at the Quality Hotel on 98th Street and Willow. Room 516.' I answered back. Whatever her problem was, it likely had to do either with the hunter that had accosted us the other day, or was about Adam in some fashion. Either way I doubted it was anything more serious than what I had already dealt with tonight.


	10. Interlude: Other Side of the Coin

**Alice POV**

"So, what's the verdict?" Roman asked me as he counted the money from Selna. Given the fat bastard had tried to scam us before, his concern was warranted. Though I knew he was talking about that girl, Yang. I honestly didn't know what to think of her. She claimed to have knowledge of future events, which was complete bullshit, but the way she said it was where I got confused. There was no doubt that she believed what she was saying. As if, somehow, she knew with complete, utter certainty that the events she told me about would be taking place had she not intervened.

I read her file on the internet, but there wasn't anything of interest until this past summer. She was apparently hospitalized, comatose, after a fight with a Grimm, only being released three months later. It seemed that accident had knocked a few screws back into place or something, because her grades went from low B's and high C's to literal straight A's, with perfect scores in five of her seven classes. Her semblance was also listed on the site, and it wasn't what she said it was.

All the school's site said was that her semblance was 'kinetic empowerment', whatever that meant. This of course made me curious as to what exactly her semblance did, so I looked up a couple of her old recorded matches. She was brash, practically grinning the entire time she was fighting. The only thing off I noticed was when she got kicked in the gut by some kid with a mace, her eyes changed colors. It was like they had in the street after I showed her my scars. After that her next attack sent the kid flying into the wall, and inevitably into the infirmary.

Maybe 'kinetic empowerment' meant that when she got hit she hit back with that much more force. It seemed like a flawed semblance, given that it was practically useless unless you were losing. This of course, also made me curious to see how she fought _after_ the accident. The first match I saw, it was like looking at a completely different person. Sure, the stance and fighting style were extremely similar. But the cold, calculating look on her face was a literal one eighty to the first fight I saw. Don't get me wrong, she was just as, if not more, brutally efficient in finishing off her opponents. I watched three of her fights that took place after her accident and in not a single one had I seen the red eyes from before. Either she hadn't been hit enough for it to trigger, or something else was going on.

Then there was the video that Neo took. That had been just confusing as all hell with the little bit of information that we had on her. Three beowolves dropping dead with a snap of her fingers. As much as I was loath to believe that she could stop time, seeing the firsthand demonstration that she gave me put things into perspective. A semblance with _that_ much power, invested in supposedly keeping Roman safe? She's working _with_ or _for_ someone that wants Roman, that much was clear. And if _she_ had that kind of power, then I could only guess at how strong her boss was.

"I dunno." I said eventually. "She _seems_ like she's on the level."

"I'm sensing a 'but'." He retorted, not taking his eyes off the money. There's no way he'd believe me if I told him what Yang had told me. I still almost didn't believe what I'd _seen_. Maybe she had some kind of hallucinatory semblance. Though that wouldn't explain what happened to the beowolves.

"She's obviously lying about her semblance." Though where the lie even starts is a mystery. "When she gave me that demonstration, it was weird." I paused, trying to remember the feeling. "Like, a warmth, inside my chest. But not like anything I'd felt before."

Roman paused to look at me. "That almost sounds like what happens when someone unlocks a person's aura."

I squinted in confusion. "You can do that?"

He waved a hand dismissively. "Yeah, but it's a whole big ordeal."

"Big ordeal or no, I want it." I slapped my hand down on the table where he had the suitcase of money, and fixed him with a determined look. He put the money down that he was counting, and for a second I thought I had crossed some sort of line, but then his trademark smirk appeared.

"What brought this on?" He asked, and I immediately felt more at ease.

"When I told her about what Selna does for a living, she got… angry. Her eyes changed color to red like in that recording. Then, when I showed her my scars." I suppressed a shudder at the squeal of stressed metal. "She crushed a light pole with her bare hand. Not one of those cheap ones that the council puts up. This was in the Mistrali district." A steel pole crumpled up like a piece of paper. "If I'm gonna be around her more, I wanna be able to protect myself. Especially when we finally make our move against that fatass." I was practically chomping at the bit to put a bullet between that piece of shit's eyes. Roman had told me that it would only be a few more days before we would be ready.

He remained silent in contemplation for some time. "Alright." I looked up, a shocked expression on my face. I had fully expected him to flat out deny me. "I think I know a guy who might be able to help."


	11. Chapter 10

"What's with the backpack?" I pointed at the seemingly fully loaded pack on Blake's back.

"Can I stay at your place, just for a couple of days at the most?" She asked, a strained expression plastered on her face.

"I thought you wanted to talk?" I asked fixing the Faunus with a quizzical look.

Blake's head tilted downward, avoiding eye contact. "I'm sorry I lied to you, it's just…" She sighed; frustration evident. "Ever since that guy attacked Ambry, Adam's been practically unbearable. I don't think he's slept more than a couple hours over the last few days. He's-" she suddenly cut off, biting her lower lip as if she had been about to say something she wasn't supposed to.

"What?" I asked, now concerned that something was wrong. A sudden feeling that something was wrong overcame me. "He's not hurting you, is he?" I honestly had no idea what their relationship was like apart from that they were together, at least in some fashion. Though, given Blake's suddenly shocked expression, him being an abuser seemed unlikely. Maybe she was about to say something regarding the White Fang?

"What? No! He's just… he hates himself. For losing to that asshole. He hates that he couldn't stop that guy from hurting innocent Faunus." She let out a shaky sigh. "From almost killing me." She finished softly.

"If anything, I imagine that your absence would just make it more difficult for Adam to cope." I stated, albeit a bit bluntly. For all I know the time apart would do them some good, but from second-hand experience if something was bothering one partner then the other leaving wouldn't help that unless said partner was the irritant. In which case there were deeper issues than whatever was causing the problem in the first place.

"Actually," Blake said in a matter-of-fact tone. "He was the one who told me to take some time away." I blinked dumbly. What?

"You couldn't have led with that?" My gaze fixed on the Faunus, who blushed with embarrassment.

"I guess it slipped my mind." She eventually admitted with a sheepish grin.

This was how, albeit reluctantly because I still thought that Blake needed to go back and talk with Adam if they were having problems, I found myself with a plus one on the ferry headed back to Patch the next morning. Blake seemed to be enjoying the cool, sea air, albeit with her ears covered by a stylized beanie. Winter had seemingly fully set in overnight, as snow was beginning to trickle downward onto the choppy water. In the distance, Patch already had a faint coating of white.

Between my aura, the hoodie I had worn, and a minor application of Yang's semblance, I was able to ignore the cold air entirely. Most of the ferry remained unoccupied, save for a couple people in the indoor area.

"What's Patch like?" Blake asked suddenly.

A smile instinctively appeared on my face. Compared to the hustle and bustle of the city where I worked, and even Vale, Patch was practically out in the boonies. At least the part of it where the Xiao Long-Rose house was. Not that that was a bad thing, quite the opposite. On Earth, my parents lived about an hour drive outside of the city where they both worked. It was practically a perfect American suburb. Though I always thought that it was a bit too noisy and cramped.

Which opened an entirely different can of worms. I had no idea what it was, but Yang's house felt like more of a home than I ever remember having when I was growing up. Sure, we did the usual stuff any family did, and my parents loved me, but between my mother being a nurse practitioner and my dad being a construction worker, we didn't really have much in common. We never really had _fun_ as a family. Doubly so once, during my freshman year in high school, my attention had turned towards becoming a lawyer.

"Quiet. Hardly any noise or light pollution. Mostly trees, save for the couple major settlements and Signal. There's not much to do aside from school, but if I ever get bored, I go out and punch Grimm." This was going to be a slippery slope. Not only did I have to acclimate Blake to Yang's normal mannerisms, but I had to maintain the carefully crafted guise that I had already been working with. If Blake or anyone ever talked with Ruby or Tai, and inconsistencies came up, then I'd be screwed.

The bell that told me the ferry had arrived at Patch rang out, snapping me out of my thoughts. A glance at Blake revealed that she was still looking out at the water, a serene look on her face. "Hey," I called out softly. "We're here." She remained silent for a moment, gaze still fixed on the horizon, before stepping away from the railing.

"How far is it to your house?" Blake asked as we finally made it back onto dry land.

"Not that far," I replied. "Maybe a forty-minute walk." And didn't that sentence surprise me. On Earth, even a five-minute walk was too far away to travel. More often than not I had stuff either delivered, or I drove to go pick it up. Even if it was just a couple blocks away. Here on Remnant, in a body trained to its height of fitness, even a three-hour trip on foot didn't seem that far away. Though, if the slight wince on Blake's face was any indication, Blake was far from pleased with my answer.

She fell in line behind me, expecting me to take the lead. "That's not, too bad I guess."

There were two roads one could use when leaving the docks: a paved street leading to the small highway system that Patch had, or an infrequently used dirt path that eventually connected to another paved road between the two major settlements that were on the island. The way to the Xiao Long-Rose house was about three quarters of the way down the dirt road, and another twenty-minute walk along the even less used branch.

As we walked, Blake seemed content to take in the sights rather than make small talk. I didn't mind, as it gave me time to think about other things. Namely like what I was going to do about the latest shitstorm I had uncovered. It was painfully obvious that my happening across a _sex trafficking ring_ of all things was no accident. Something had to be done about it. Leaving it unchecked might cause someone close to me to eventually become a victim. If they ever decided to target me, my semblance would likely be enough to catch them off guard for long enough to get away. But if it was Blake, or even God forbid Ruby…

"You okay?" Blake's sudden interjection almost gave me a start.

"Fine, why?" I replied habitually.

She seemed to bite back a grimace. "Well, you're uh, smoldering." She pointed a finger to my left side, where a quarter sized ember-rimmed hole had started to appear in the sleeve of my hoodie. Instinctively, I yanked it off and did my best to smother it, but the damage had already been done. Tai's hoodie was effectively ruined. A nearly fist sized hole had been burned in the left forearm area, still smoking from the damage that had been done. That was twice in less than 24 hours that Yang's semblance had triggered on its own.

A frustrated growl left my lips. The urge to punch something asserted itself, and I knew exactly what to do. "Hey, after we stop by my house, you wanna head out into the forest and blow off some steam? There's plenty of Grimm out there." I brushed the dirt off of the hoodie and slung it over my shoulder, only just now noticing the familiar tingle in my eyes that told me they were blood-red. Had I really lost my temper that much that quickly?

"Sure. I'd planned on continuing my book," She thumbed towards her backpack. "But I can do that anywhere, I suppose." While I had been looking forward to actually seeing Blake fight in person, it wasn't unreasonable that she came here not expecting to. Her weapon had broken in the fight with Eisen and I doubted that she had found a replacement or repaired it so quickly. Though, the one I saw didn't really look like Gambol Shroud. It was a lot longer than I remember from the show, closer to Adam's sword, as well as being a muted grey instead of black.

During the remaining thirty minutes of the walk home, my eyes never stopped tingling. A subtle glance in the mirrored surface of my scroll told me that I wasn't imagining it. Eventually, we arrived at the familiar façade of home. I told Blake where both the upstairs bathroom and the spare bedroom were and made my way to the downstairs bathroom, tossing Tai's ravaged hoodie on the couch as I went. Once inside, I finally got a good look at myself.

My eyes were so vibrantly red, that they almost appeared to be glowing. I pulled, flexed and even covered my face, hoping that something would break the illusion and they'd go back to normal. Nothing worked. My scroll told me that Yang's aura was at 97%. Mine was untouched, still at maximum. Disgruntled, I closed my scroll and dropped it back into my pocket. "Why is this happening?" I whispered to myself.

This had to be about that guy, Albert. Ever since I had learned of his existence, it felt like my emotions had been running rampant, practically out of control. He had to be dealt with. One way, or another. If his operation has been going on for several years and no one has batted an eye towards it, odds were that he had several, or at least just enough, prominent figures within Vale's government in his pocket. Meaning that any attempt to strike him down within the law would largely be ineffective.

I'd seen how people like this worked firsthand, unfortunately. The rich and powerful participate in a token trial and within a day they're walking around free on bail, while their official trial date keeps getting rescheduled or even completely disregarded. As much as I wanted to smite him from within the justice system, the more I thought about it the more unlikely it seemed to be that that would happen.

Deciding to put my brooding off for another time, I sighed and reluctantly headed back into the living room. Blake was already there, now sporting her hair in a ponytail and a black covered book under her arm. "Um, do you want something to eat or drink before we go?" I asked courteously. In the corner by the door to the kitchen, I saw Zwei, sleeping soundly.

"No," she replied. "Thank you for the offer though." She took an extra moment to eye the corgi cautiously.

Figuring that Blake likely wouldn't be comfortable in a place that looked like a warzone, I opted to head in a different direction from my usual training area. In my initial search for a clearing that suited my needs, I had found several locations that would be decent, but not perfect. One of which was closer to the house than any of the others, but it was near a cliff that housed multiple caves. At the time, I had been worried that I would bite off more than I could chew when it came to the Grimm, but that no longer mattered. I needed to let off some steam and any Grimm unfortunate to find itself in my path would be my target.

Not more than five minutes after we arrived and Blake settled in the branches of a tree with her book, an Ursa Minor came clambering into the clearing, ignorant of the danger it would face. Almost immediately upon seeing it, a cold chill ran through me. Pain split my head, and I couldn't move. The landscape around me changed. Green trees turned to red, and the Ursa grew in size, now clearly an Ursa Major.

It was almost like I was reliving what Yang had gone through just before she died. What the Hell is happening? The more I attempted to move, the harder that seemed to be to accomplish. The Major growled menacingly and stalked towards my unmoving form. With every heavy step, I fought harder and harder. It was close now. Too close. It almost seemed to let out a laugh, before raising one of its heavy paws and swinging for me. I flinched instinctively, expecting the worst.

Nothing. Nothing happened. I opened my eyes, only to see that everything was back to normal. The Ursa was just a minor class, I was still in the woods outside the Xiao Long-Rose house, and I was still alive. Better yet, I could move finally. I started to whoop for joy, but was interrupted as, at last, the Ursa spotted me. The fear began to fade, replaced instead with overwhelming rage. How dare this piece of shit kill me!

I strode forward, fist clenched so tightly that were it not for my aura, I was sure that my nails would be digging furrows into my palm. The Ursa bellowed a warning and charged. Time slowed as I dodged its clumsy swipe and readied a haymaker. What felt like seconds passed as my fist closed in on its target with agonizing slowness. The Ursa hadn't even recovered from its miss yet, still angrily fixed on where I had been. With a growl of frustration, I forced as much power into the punch as I could, trying to get it to go faster.

The result was unexpected. The flow of time returned to normal, and my attack hammered into the Ursa with a force that I had no idea I could produce. An angry cry of effort left my lips as the ground around me pancaked, sending cracks splintering out past my line of sight. My scroll wailed in alarm as the sheer force of what I had done began to set in. Breathless, I stood up from what remained of the Ursa, mostly everything in its lower half. The rest had literally been pulverized into blackened soup.

The clearing was utterly destroyed. The ground was upturned for probably a hundred feet in every direction. Blake was staring at me, completely awed at what I had done. Couldn't say that I blamed her, given that I was still reeling from it as well. I checked my scroll to turn off my alarm and, to my astonishment, that punch had used up _almost 80%_ of Yang's aura, leaving it at 19%. "I know you weren't the Ursa that killed me." I spoke softly to the sublimating corpse. "But damn if that didn't feel good." With that over with, I felt the tumultuous emotion that had been plaguing me these last couple days leave me. I collapsed to my knees, utterly satisfied.

"Yang!" A voice that wasn't Blake's cried out. I turned to see a red and black figure running towards me, an ecstatic grin on her face. "That was so awesome!" Ruby plowed into me, almost knocking me over.

"What are you doing here?" I asked, unable to keep a smile off of my face.

Ruby shrugged. "Dad got called away for a mission, so we had to come back early. He dropped me off and I caught a glimpse of you and a girl headed into the forest. At first I wanted to spy on you, but I got here just in time to see what you did to that Ursa." She paused a moment before adding "what happened anyway?" with a concerned tone of voice.

"Well," I started, a bit nonplussed. "Uh, I saw the Ursa, and I guess I had a flashback to the accident. It freaked me out for a bit, but eventually I snapped out of it. Then I got mad. Like, really mad. After that, well, I one-shot it." Crunching footsteps got my attention, and I turned to see Blake walking towards us, staring warily at the destruction I had wrought.

"You… okay?" She asked uncertainly.

With a soft grunt of effort, I stood up. Of course, as Ruby had already latched onto me and didn't seem to be letting go, I got to carry her. Not that I minded. Ruby had grown on me considerably in the time that I had been here. "I'm fine." I said to both of them. "Just got a bit carried away." Turning towards the Faunus, I added. "This is my little sister, Ruby." To Ruby. "This is Blake, my friend from the city. She's staying at our place for a couple days."

"Hi!" Ruby chirped, waving a hand in greeting. Blake responded with a decidedly less enthusiastic greeting of her own, and we were off. Ruby began recounting what had happened in the day and a half she had been gone on her trip. Most of it had just been physical training via sparring with Tai, but she had even managed to kill a beowolf while unarmed, something that I know for a fact that Ruby in the show wouldn't be able to do. At least at this point in time.

Blake, to my surprise, even contributed to the conversation with a story of her own. Apparently my own feat of strength had reminded her of the time when her dad had killed an adolescent deathstalker pack by using one of them as an improvised flail. Ruby was completely enraptured by Blake's story, and before we knew it, we had arrived back at the house. Ruby hopped down and sped inside, leaving Blake and I alone for a moment.

I moved my arm in front of her, stopping her progress. "Before we go inside, there's a couple things I need to tell you."

Blake seemed a bit confused, understandably. "Um, alright."

"Firstly, don't mention Raven. I don't know if Adam told you, and it's not like it's a sore subject here, but I'd rather avoid the headache that would cause." Blake nodded, seeming to get what I was saying. It seemed that they did talk about me. I didn't know whether to be flattered or upset.

"Secondly, Ruby doesn't care if you're a Faunus. You could have three eyes and a horn, and she'd still try to be friends with you." I'm sure she'd try to befriend a Grimm if they weren't trying to kill humanity. "If she says something that you think is a slight towards Faunus or otherwise, it's not. She's awkward and inept at talking about things outside of her comfort zone. If you want to talk about weapons, that's what she knows best." She paused for a moment, before eventually agreeing.

"Lastly, don't mention anything that happened in Vale. I don't want to drag her or my dad into anything going on over there. Understand? If they ask, tell them that I was hanging out at Tukson's helping him." Blake frowned at the memory of the events. Not that I could blame her. As much as I wanted to put that whole ordeal behind me, I had a niggling feeling that the fallout from that had yet to even begin.

"Alright," Blake replied a bit hesitantly.

My demeanor changed instantly, as part of the ruse I was trying to sell, from completely serious to happy as a clam. "Great! You hungry?" I threw an arm around her shoulder and escorted her inside. Ruby was staring at Tai's hoodie that I hadn't had a chance to put away, a perturbed look on her face.

"Dad's gonna kill you," She whispered, her voice deadly serious.

I knew she was kidding, but I played along anyway. "Not if he doesn't find out." Was my reply in an equally serious tone. She maintained eye contact with me for several seconds, before I realized that she wasn't kidding.

"I'm being serious, Yang!" She huffed.

"Well how was I supposed to know?" I retorted, not realizing how I had screwed up.

Ruby tossed the hoodie back onto the couch. "He told us _last year_ when he found Zwei laying on it the day after my birthday." She paused, looking a bit confused. "Do you…. not remember?"

"I d-" I stopped myself, but quickly realized that I could salvage this while taking some of the pressure off of myself in the process. "No, I don't remember a lot of things." Ruby's expression morphed to one of concern. "I didn't want to worry you or dad." Though it was technically a half-truth, I still felt like shit. It was a feeling that I was well accustomed to. Ruby was clearly distressed at the revelation, her mouth trying and failing to form words. Blake had seemingly sensed the awkward conversation and disappeared somewhere.

"I.. I guess that explains why you've been acting so differently these past few months." Ruby spoke in a small voice. She seemed on the verge of tears, so I did the only thing that I could in that moment. I darted forward and wrapped the smaller girl in a hug.

"I'm sorry." I whispered.

"Why are you apologizing to me?" Ruby replied, tears streaking down her face. "I should be apologizing to you!"

I squared her shoulders with mine and looked into her eyes. "You had no idea. I did it intentionally to avoid… this. Could we," I paused for a moment to wipe away her tears. Ruby smiled, clearly appreciative of the gesture. "Could we keep this between us? Dad has a lot on his plate, and I'm remembering more and more stuff as I go. Like I remembered that my accident was in Forever Fall. It looked beautiful. Much better than the pictures and videos of it."

Ruby snuffled. "Alright. We don't have to tell dad."

"Thank you." After giving one more extra tight hug, I pulled back. "Hey, why don't you head into the kitchen and start getting stuff out for the tacos while I go upstairs and get tidied up?" Ruby gave her first genuine smile of the day and nodded vigorously. As Ruby hurried off to the kitchen, I moved at an equally fast pace to the bathroom. After locking the door, I proceeded to empty what little contents my stomach had into the toilet. The guilt at lying to Ruby about something so significant, something _that_ lifechanging, was twisting my stomach into knots. My attempts at masking the sounds were feeble at best, but unless Blake or Ruby were listening right at the door, I doubted they would hear me.

In almost repeat of the night I had gone to dinner with Melanie. I wound up crouched over the toilet, dry heaving. Though instead of alcohol that filled my body it was guilt. Guilt at the constant lies and deception. The feigned interactions. All the times that I wanted to scream to the world who I was but couldn't, not without irrevocably damaging the lives of two people. People who had grown on me in my short time here.

Eventually, when my body had finally given its all, I flushed the toilet and stood up. I felt weak, and I knew it wasn't due to my aura being low. After rinsing my mouth out with water, followed by mouthwash, I took a deep breath and stepped out of the bathroom.

Deciding that the first thing I should do before going downstairs was check on Blake, I headed further down the hallway past mine and Ruby's rooms. Peeking into the spare, I saw that she was laying back on the bed, sound asleep, with a book laying open on her chest. I figured that it would probably be best to let her rest and only wake her up when dinner was done.

As I headed down the hall towards the stairs, I briefly contemplated doing the same as Blake. A nap sounded wonderful, but Ruby would wonder where I went off to, and she was expecting me. On the ground floor, the TV had been switched on and was currently displaying some animated cartoon that I had seen Ruby watching before.

"Oh!" Ruby cried out in a panicked voice from the kitchen. I looked and saw a bowl speeding towards the ground. Realizing that that bowl contained the sum total of ground beef that we had in the house, I activated my semblance. A rush of excitement ran through me at the feeling of stillness and silence. My own little world that no one could touch unless I wanted them to. I hurried over and placed a hand just underneath the bowl whilst simultaneously deactivating my semblance.

"You should be more careful, sis." I shot Ruby a cheeky grin as I placed the bowl back on the counter.

"Where did you come from?" Ruby asked, shock clearly evident in her voice.

"I was walking up when I saw you drop the bowl."

Ruby floundered for a moment, before eventually replying. "Thanks."

I gave her arm a small squeeze. "Hand me the seasoning."

She did, and then said something that surprised me. "Do you mind handling it from here? I wanna go sit down."

"Um, sure." Was all I could say. That was strange. It seemed like an almost 180 from how enthusiastic she had been when wanting to make dinner. Had someone contacted her while I was upstairs? Other than that, I couldn't think of anything that could-

A cold chill went down my spine as It hit me. Did she see me use my semblance? She hadn't been facing me, but she could have seen my reflection in something. I put dinner on hold for a brief moment, frantically scanning the kitchen for anything shiny enough to give a good view of the stairwell across the room. The only place I could see is the oven door, which not only reflected the stairwell, but also had been right near Ruby's head when it happened. My only blessing was that the surface was textured and only conveyed a vague image of what was behind me.

If she asked, then I would just tell her the same thing I had told Adam. She had seen how far I had progressed in these past months, so who was to say that it wasn't a new effect of Yang's semblance? Who knows, it could be something that I could actually do with enough practice. Though now was not the time for that, I had dinner to prepare after all. Training could come later.

Somehow, I had managed to get through the meal and back up to my room without incident. My heart was racing loud enough that I was sure that Blake had heard it. There was practically no small talk. Ruby made no mention of anything to do with me. Blake was as withdrawn as she had ever been. A pit of unease rested in my stomach. It had been almost two hours since then, and as I rapped my fingers on the footboard of my bed, I felt I was at a loss as to what to do.

A brief desire to speak to Izanami again took hold but was quickly squashed. If I was going to survive on Remnant, I needed to figure things out for myself. First on my plate was dealing with this situation with Ruby.

"Hey," A small voice gave me a start. Ruby was in the doorway, peeking in. Speak of the devil, I guess. "You ok?"

"I feel I should be asking _you_ that." I replied half-heartedly.

Ruby sat down next to me, a puzzled look on her face. "Why?"

"You seemed pretty downtrodden when I started making dinner, and then you barely talked at all during." Her eyes lit up as Ruby seemed to have an epiphany.

"Oooooh. I thought that you wanted to be left alone." Ruby answered. So _that's_ why she had been acting so distant.

"I was worried that I had done something or said something to upset you." The uneasiness in my chest lightened slightly at the situation being clarified. Though there was still the matter of whether or not she had seen me use my semblance. I wasn't going to ask, because if she hadn't and I asked, she would grow suspicious regardless.

"No, you didn't do anything wrong. I just, I didn't want to bother you." Well that did it. I turned and gave Yang's little sister the biggest hug I ever had.

"Ruby. You could never bother me." I looked her dead in the eyes as I said this. "No matter what you say or do."

She seemed to ponder these words for a few moments, before eventually returning the hug in earnest. I felt her relax into my grip. It seemed that I still had a lot of work to do if I was to keep my promise to Yang. "I know," I started. "I haven't been the best sister these past few months. But I'm trying to do better. I just want you to know that."

"If I'm being honest, I kinda prefer how you've been taking care of me compared to before. You're not as…" She trailed off, but I knew exactly what she was talking about.

"Suffocating?" I offered. Ruby flushed with embarrassment but nodded regardless. "Well, how about this: tomorrow, you show me just how well you can use that scythe in a spar with me."

"Really?" Ruby's eyes shot up to meet mine, a mix of disbelief and eagerness in her voice.

"Really." I answered with a small smile. "Besides," I patted the box where I had stored Summer's weapons. "I've been kinda eager to test these out." A knowing smirk appeared on my face. "I've got Ember Celica in Basalt's shop right now for a small repair, but when I get 'em back, I might just feel the need to upgrade them."

Ruby suddenly looked worried. "Small repair?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I couldn't get the gravity dust array quite right. I took it to him so he could give it a shot. I'd already forwarded him the schematics." Ruby visibly relaxed, her concern completely justifying my secrecy about the actual fate of my weapon.

Ruby stood. "Well, don't think I'm gonna go easy on you just 'cause you're my sister." She fixed me with a harsh stare that eventually broke down into a grin. I could tell that she was excited about the spar. After all it would technically be my first time fighting her. As far as I knew of anyway.

"Same goes for me too." I matched her grin. Unbidden, a yawn forced its way out of me. "I think I'm gonna go to bed early."

"All right." Ruby started towards the door. "G'night Yang."

"Good night, Ruby." I replied. Only once Ruby had left did I breathe a sigh of relief. That went about as well as I could have hoped it could. As much as I hated it, I was starting to get used to lying to Ruby. My scroll blared a tone that told me I had gotten a notification. I let out an exasperated sigh and grabbed my scroll. What I read sent a chill down my spine.

' _I must speak with you once more._ '. Read the message from Izanami. I could only sit in a mix of apprehension and wonder at what earth-shattering revelation I was to be informed of this time. Not really seeing any point in putting it off, I closed my scroll and laid down in my bed. Within moments, I felt the change. Though this time I was laying on the ground for some reason. I stood, the tepid air a stark contrast to the chill on Patch. As I approached the familiar monument where the Relic was kept, I saw an _un_ familiar face.

Before I could even react, Izanami spoke. "Do not worry. She is not here for any ill intentions." Now that I was closer, I could finally take in the appearance of the newcomer. Her weapon, a stylized short sword of similar style to that of the Relic, was clipped to her hip. She was dressed in the typical fashion for someone who lived in a desert: a black crop top that exposed her tanned midriff, black short shorts and purple leggings that matched her hair and eyes.

"You can stop ogling me now." The newcomer spoke amusedly.

"How are-" I'd started when it hit me. "Y-you mean, you're the Headmaster- er, Headmistress at Shade _and_ the Summer Maiden?"

A broad grin appeared on her face as she turned to Izanami. "You were right, she _is_ intelligent."

Izanami, despite its mostly featureless façade, actually seemed off put by her comment. "I do not lie."

"Maybe not," the Headmistress hummed in thought. "Though it sure doesn't stop you from being intentionally vague and misleading." After turning to me, she declared. "So, _this_ is the 'Chosen One'"

My face paled. "'Chosen One'!?" I squeaked. The Headmistress laughed heartily.

"Relax, I'm just fucking with you." She turned to regard the sword in the stone next to her. "Though, in a manner of speaking I guess you are." After pulling the sword out, she added. "Kinda" with a half-shrug. I could practically feel Izanami's incredulity at the brashness of the Headmistress. "Oh, and the name's Sylvia."

She was awfully candid for one of the four most powerful people on Remnant. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Headmas-"

She cut me off. "Please, none of that formal nonsense. Just Sylvia is fine." After twirling the sword around for a moment, she tossed it into the air. "Here, catch." My eyes widened as I reached out to grab it before it clattered onto the sandstone. Despite being millennia old, it was still sparkling as if freshly forged. The silver blade contrasted with the jewel decorated golden handle. It seemed to be a blade made purely for vanity. Despite its appearance, I knew that it held far more power than I could possibly imagine.

"It's… heavier than I expected." I wasn't speaking of its physical weight, but rather what holding it implied. _This_ is what Salem was after. _This_ was what Ozpin wanted kept secured away from the world forever.

This is what I would one day wield, at least according to Izanami.

"Easy there, tiger." Sylvia placed a comforting hand on my shoulder. "Don't overthink it now. She told me that you tend to do that."

My awestruck expression morphed to one of confusion. "'She'?"

"I mean tall, dark, and mysterious over there." She thumbed in Izanami's direction. What?

"Of course you have to ruin the fun for me." Izanami spoke wearily and the smoke that I had previously thought to make up its form dispersed, leaving in place a pallid skinned woman with a Japanese-style kimono on. _She_ almost seemed to glow with an ethereal light. She turned her gaze on the Headmistress. "Get to the reason why you called her here." The spirit sat down on the rock that once held the Sword.

"Ah, right." Sylvia cleared her throat. "As I am forbidden by our ' _glorious overlord_ '" This was spoken with heavy sarcasm. "Ozpin from leaving not only Vacuo, but Shade itself, I have a favor I need to ask of you." Damn, she really held no love for Ozpin. Then again, being a prisoner in your own school was a valid case for that.

"Alright, what is it?" I asked, not really sure what I could do for her.

She, thankfully, took the Relic back and moved to place it back within its pedestal. "I have a pen pal in Vale. His name is Roux Castanho. He lives in an apartment building in the southern part of the residential district by River Road and 290th street. The exact address will be sent to your scroll. Anyway, he stopped penning me about a week and a half ago." Her normally cheeky grin morphed into a look of almost lost hope. "He had been having problems with his landlord, mainly because he's been late on a couple rent payments and I'm worried that something happened to him." I had been expecting pretty much anything _but_ that, doubly so given that scrolls were so common. But then again, the truly downtrodden and poverty-stricken might not even be able to afford a scroll. And Sylvia had said he was missing rent payments.

"I'll find him." I told her, utter certainty in my voice.

Sylvia gave me a genuine smile. "Thanks, kid."


End file.
